Lord Taylor jailed for expenses fraud

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31st May 2011

Former Conservative peer Lord Taylor of Warwick has been sentenced to 12 months in prison after being found guilty of falsely claiming more than £11,000 in parliamentary expenses.

He was accused of fraudulently making expenses claims by designating his main residence as a property in Oxford, when he in fact lived in west London.

Commenting on the sentence Justice Saunders said Lord Taylor had breached the trust placed in parliamentarians.

"The expenses scheme in the House of Lords was based on trust," he said.

"Peers certified that their claims were accurate. They were not required to provide proof. It was considered that people who achieved a peerage could be relied on to be honest.

"Making false claims involved a breach of a high degree of trust.

"The expenses scandal has affected the standing not just of the House of Commons but also the House of Lords."

Lord Taylor will remain a member of the House of Lords as it is not possible for peers to resign their seats an can only be kicked out by an Act of Parliament.

He was raised to the peerage as Baron Taylor of Warwick, of Warwick in the County of Warwickshire in 1996 as the first black Tory peer, but he resigned the Conservative Whip July 2010.

Speaking at the time of his conviction Stephen O’Doherty, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service said:

"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.

"Yet Lord Taylor claimed exactly that and landed the taxpayer with a bill of more than £11,000."

Last week another former Tory peer, Lord Hanningfield, was found guilty of six counts of fraud related to his expenses claims.

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