0005 Hrs GMT
London Saturday 20 June 2009
The DAILY TELERGRAPH has published some facts about "Baroness Uddin" of "Bethnal Green" in a contextual report as seen in the following version taken from that newspaper’s web site in the last few minutes:
MPs' expenses: Scotland Yard launch criminal investigations
Scotland Yard has launched criminal investigations into the expenses claims of MPs following disclosures by The Daily Telegraph.
By Richard Edwards, Crime CorrespondentPublished: 5:22PM BST 19 Jun 2009
Photo: BEN LACK / IMAGES INTERNATIONAL / MEN
The Metropolitan Police has announced that it will carry out inquiries into a small number of cases in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal.
The Telegraph understands that they relate to claims based on “phantom mortgages” when an MP has potentially misled the Fees Office.
Related Articles
What data published by Telegraph shows vs official version
19 Jun 2009
MPs' expenses investigation in full
How the documents came out
MPs' expenses: Metropolitan police statement
Tony McNulty quits Government in wake of expenses row
Uncensored: the Cabinet's expenses files in full
Elliot Morley and David Chaytor face police investigation over expenses
The politicians involved, who have not named but are believed to include MPs and a member of the House of Lords, now face formal questioning under caution by police and possible prosecution.
A spokesman for Scotland Yard said: "After consideration by the joint Metropolitan Police and Crown Prosecution Service assessment panel the Met has decided to launch an investigation into the alleged misuse of expenses by a small number of MPs and Lords".
Detectives have been liaising with the Fees Office and looking specifically at the claims of Labour MPs Elliot Morley and David Chaytor.
Mr Morley, a minister for nine years under Tony Blair, claimed reimbursement of £16,000 in interest over 18 months for a mortgage that did not exist.
He became one of the first casualties of the scandal when he was suspended from the Parliamentary Labour Party and later announced that he would stand down as an MP.
Mr Chaytor also announced he would be standing, as MP for Bury North, after it was disclosed that he claimed almost £13,000 in interest from his MP’s expenses for a mortgage that he had already paid off.
He said that he had made an “unforgivable error” in his “accounting procedures” and apologised to his constituents.
Criminal lawyers have said that the claims could constitute a criminal offence under the 2006 Fraud Act and the 1968 Theft Act.
The Met have received more than a hundred complaints from members of the public about MPs, including the Cabinet members Alistair Darling and Geoff Hoon and the Labour peer Baroness Uddin.
Sir Paul Stephenson, the Scotland Yard Commissioner, and Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, set up a panel to assess allegations of misuse of expenses.
The panel have decided that possible prosecutions are only realistic on cases where MPs allegedly misled the Fees Office, which processes Parliamentary expenses.
Cases in which MPs have “flipped” properties and lawfully avoided capital gains tax – including that of Hazel Blears – are not a matter for the police. Those cases may, however, still face investigation by the inland revenue.
Mr Morley initially blamed his error on “sloppy accounting”. But he admitted that he claimed £800 a month for more than a year and a half after his mortgage had been repaid.
He said last month: “I accept that I have made a mistake in this case and have rectified it in full. I deeply apologise for such sloppy accounting in a very loose and shambolic allowance system but there is nobody to blame but myself and I take full responsibility for this. I apologise unreservedly.”
The Telegraph established that between September, 2005, and August. 2006, Mr Chaytor claimed £1,175 a month for mortgage interest on a Westminster flat. However, Land Registry records showed that the mortgage on the flat had already been paid off in January 2004.
Mr Chaytor said that his priority in the next few months would be to “explain his errors” over his expenses.
“This will be time-consuming and stressful,” he went on. “I have referred my case to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards and will co-operate fully with his inquiry.”
All of the complaints have been passed to the Met’s Specialist Crime Directorate, headed by Janet Williams, the Acting Assistant Commissioner.
The cases are being handled by Nigel Mawer, the Met’s head of specialist and economic crime.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Poverty of the MPs is in the grotesque shamelessness... and petty greed
EAST LONDON PRESS says at 0510 Hrs on Tuesday 31 March 2009: It is not just Harry Cohen, the east London MP who used to flaunt a faker beard and spout strings of calculated socialistic confections... Having lost BOTH in order to stay on the bandwagon, Cohen seems to have also lost any sense of rationality. And dignity. How else could he be saying those things, comparing himself to Churchill in that way? There were indeed many flaws in Churchill’s life and character. But Harry Cohen is not remotely convincing as a comparable Member of Parliament...Or as a member of society... What Cohen’s banal boast tells us about him is that he belongs to a parliament of political, mental, moral pigmies with no evident shame...
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.