photo by UK Parliament  

A former Tory peer has been found guilty of fiddling his expenses to claim more than £11,000 from the public purse.

Lord Taylor of Warwick falsely filed for travel and overnight subsistence, a jury at Southwark Crown Court decided by a majority of 11 to one.

The 58-year-old told the House of Lords members' expenses office that his main residence was in Oxford, when he lived in west London.

Taylor, whose first name is John, was the first parliamentarian to be tried and found guilty by a jury over the expenses scandal.

The jury of seven men and five women took just over five hours to reach their majority verdict that Taylor, of Lynwood Road, Ealing, made £11,277.80-worth of claims on various dates between March 2006 and October 2007.

Eleven jurors agreed with the prosecutor Helen Law, who said during the trial: "Lord Taylor did not have a main home in Oxford and he was not entitled to claim as if he did.

"He knew that and he claimed anyway. He did so in a way that he knew would mislead the members' expenses section into making payments he wasn't entitled to. His actions were dishonest."

The property in Oxford was where his half-nephew Robert Taylor lived with his partner Tristram Wyatt, who owned the house.

Taylor said throughout his trial that all he needed was a "family connection" to a property to call it a main residence on his claim forms.

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