LONDON – A Conservative member of the House of Lords was found guilty yesterday of falsely claiming over £11,000 in expenses.
Lord Taylor of Warwick claimed for travel and overnight subsistence when he was really living in London, a jury at Southwark Crown Court decided by a majority of 11 to one.
The 58-year-old had told the House of Lords members’ expenses office that his main residence was in Oxford.
Lord Taylor was the first parliamentarian to be tried and found guilty by a jury over the expenses scandal. Two former Labour MPs have pleaded guilty in court. He was released on bail pending sentence.
The peer, who was Britain’s first black Conservative peer and a former barrister and radio and TV presenter, was standing trial for making £11,277 worth of claims between March 2006 and October 2007.
Throughout the trial, he maintained he was following advice given to him by fellow peers that nominating a main residence outside the capital was a way to earn money “in lieu of salary”.
Described in court by a friend as being a “little too trusting”, his assertion that the expenses system was a “quirk” of the House of Lords failed to convince the jury.
Prosecutor Helen Law said: “Lord Taylor did not have a main home in Oxford and he was not entitled to claim as if he did. He knew that and he claimed anyway.” The property in Oxford was where his half-nephew Robert Taylor lived with his partner, Tristram Wyatt, who owned the house.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) welcomed the verdict.
No one could sincerely believe that a home in which they had no financial interest, had never lived in and had scarcely visited could count as their main residence, or that it was permissible to claim for driving between Oxford and parliament when they had not done so,” said CPS lawyer Stephen O’Doherty. – (Reuters)