Former Conservative peer falsely filed for travel and overnight subsistence to claim more than £11,000 from taxpayer, court told
Lord Taylor of Warwick has become the first peer to be jailed over the parliamentary expenses scandal after a judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison on Tuesday for claiming more than £11,000 in false travel and overnight subsistence allowances.
The 58-year-old former barrister, the first parliamentarian to stand trial over expenses, had pursued a "protracted course of dishonesty" and lied to the jury on oath, the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said when passing sentence at Southwark crown court.
The first Conservative black peer, who joined the House of Lords in 1996, had said his main residence was in Oxford – while in fact his only residence was in Ealing, west London – so that he could claim for travel and subsistence when attending the House of Lords.
He was convicted in January on six counts of false accounting for making £11,277 worth of fraudulent claims between March 2006 and October 2007.
He told the court he believed he only needed a "family connection" to a property to enter it as a main residence on claims forms. The Oxford property, which he had visited twice and had never stayed at, was owned by the partner of his half-nephew who knew nothing of his uncle's claims and suffered "considerable distress" as a result of the police investigation.
As Taylor was sentenced, it emerged that about 15 fellow peers, including Lord Clarke of Hampstead, a former chairman of the Labour party, had refused to give evidence at the trial to support his defence.
For Taylor, Mohammed Khamisa QC asked the judge to "temper justice with mercy" and impose a suspended sentence. Taylor had made a "monumental error of judgment" which had destroyed his life. He was not motivated by "money, glory, pomposity, arrogance or greed", he said.
The peer – who can remain in the Lords despite his conviction – had lost his paid consultancy work and was forced to live on £50,000 borrowed against the equity of his house.
Acknowledging a "truly remarkable series of references" and praising the peer's dedication to public service, Saunders said: "All that Lord Taylor has thrown away. Not by one stupid action, but by a protracted course of dishonesty."
The House of Lords allowances scheme "lacked clarity", said Saunders, but "it was considered that people who achieved peerage could be relied on to be honest. Making false claims involved a breach of a high degree of trust".
