Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tory MP admits expenses fraud
His lawyer says faking invoices was ‘disastrous’
TORY MP Christopher Davies has pleaded guilty to fiddling his Parliamentary expenses.
He created two fake invoices in what his lawyer described as a “disastrous accounting episode”.
District judge John Zani said there was no financial gain for Davies’ actions but they were “very serious offences... absolutely intended to deceive”.
He added he did not consider his sentencing power at Westminster magistrates court to be sufficient so sent the case to crown court.
Davies’ crimes relate to £700 he paid a photogra- pher for nine pictures for his constituency office. He used his own money initially. There were two budgets he could claim the cash back from. Philip Stott, prosecuting, said that Davies found only £476 remained in one budget, with more than £8,000 in the other.
In 2016, Davies created the two fake invoices so the £700 could be split between the two budgets – £450 in the first and £250 in the other.
The court heard he could have legitimately claimed the full amount from the budget with the larger amount in, or could have asked the photographer to create new invoices to split the cost that way.
Davies, 51, MP for Brecon and Radnorshire, admitted one charge of providing false or misleading information for allowances claims, and one charge of attempting to do so.
He has repaid the £450, with the £250 claim never submitted.
Thomas Forster, defending, said yesterday dad-of-two Davies expressed his “sincere and unreserved apology”, adding: “He recognises he is the author of his own misfortune.”
The Conservative Party said: “As this is an ongoing legal matter, we will not be commenting.”