A Labour peer has been ordered to apologise to the House of Lords for abusing his expenses claims.
A parliamentary inquiry found yesterday that Lord Clarke of Hampstead claimed overnight subsistence payments for nights when he did not stay in London.
He has already repaid £9,190 to the House authorities after newspaper allegations about his claims which sparked a police investigation.
In May last year the Sunday Times accused him of having "fiddled" his expenses after he told them he had claimed for nights when he returned to his home in St Albans, Hertfordshire, and claiming the maximum amount even though he had stayed free with friends or family.
The paper reported that he had claimed around £18,000 a year - a total of more than £100,000 since 2001.
The sub-committee on Lords' interests found that Lord Clarke's reasoning for making the claims were not acceptable.
It found: "In no circumstances should he have believed that he was entitled to make these claims. Lord Clarke was at fault to have claimed night subsistence for nights that he did not spend in London."
In February the Crown Prosecution Service said there was not enough evidence to attempt to convict him of a criminal offence.
Lord Clarke was raised to the peerage as Baron Clarke of Hampstead, of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden 1998 and was chair of the Labour Party 1992-93.
