British lord jailed for expenses fraud

A Conservative member of Britain’s upper house of Parliament was jailed for a year yesterday for fiddling his parliamentary expenses.

Lord John Taylor, 58, became the fifth lawmaker to be jailed over the scandal which rocked British politics in 2009.

Lord Taylor, a former lawyer who became the first black Conservative peer when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1996, claimed more than £11,000 (€12,600) for travel and overnight subsistence.

In evidence to Southwark Crown Court in London, it emerged he told the House of Lords members’ expenses office that his main residence was a house in Oxford, which was owned by his nephew, when in fact he lived in London.

Lord Taylor told his trial that he understood he only needed a “family connection” to a property to call it a main residence on his claim forms.

He also maintained he had pleaded not guilty because he had only been following advice given to him by fellow peers that nominating a residence outside of the capital was a way to earn money “in lieu of salary”.

He was convicted by a jury in January.

Sentencing Lord Taylor to 12 months in jail, Judge John Saunders said the expenses scandal had “left an indelible stain on Parliament”.

The scandal, which emerged after a newspaper obtained details of lawmakers’ claims for the reimbursement of everything from ornamental duck houses to porn films, forced a shake-up of the ­system of parliamentary allowances.

Another Conservative peer, Paul White, known as Lord Hanningfield, will be sentenced next month after he was found guilty last week of fraudulently claiming nearly £14,000 in his Lords expenses.