Friday - May 22, 2009

Conservative MP who claimed more than £11,500 on a phantom mortgage is facing more questions

BMEWS readers will I hope forgive me for banging on about the current political scandal that has rocked this country for more then two weeks.
And it is FAR from over.  It seems there new revelations every day but that shouldn’t be surprising.  There are over 600 MPs and of course not ALL have been accused of wrong doing.  Quite the contrary. There are a few so far who have passed the integrity test.

As I have mentioned before, because it’s personal, by July the wife and I have to come up with a pile of cash to pay inheritance on this very old house.
Fair enough I suppose.  You live on this island, you pay your taxes.  And damn well on time btw.  Inland Revenue here not a whole lot different from our own IRS back home.  If you’re caught cheating the law will come down on your head like a ton of bricks.  You folks all know well there is very little if any leeway when it comes to ... oops. I made a mistake on the tax form. Sorry.  Fine, but you will also PAY for that mistake. If you aren’t fined or jailed for intentional cheating, if the mistake is indeed an honest one, you will still have to pay a hefty interest charge for late payments to the tax man.

UNLESS YOU ARE A POLITICIAN of course in which case normal proceedures apparently do not apply.

LyndonB gave us this very excellent link that covers the subject well and I would recommend it to anyone with even a little interest in understanding the subject. It’s not a boring tutorial thing at all. Here. Check it out.  Thanks Lyndon.

WWW.ORDER-ORDER.COM

Now then, all of the above brings me to this story (one of so many) which really bothers us a lot. (wife and I) Especially facing the circumstances we do and we’re luckier then many.  See what you people make of this.

Bill Wiggin, the Conservative whip who claimed more than £11,500 on a phantom mortgage is facing more questions over the location of his second home.

By Martin Beckford
Last Updated: 6:55AM BST 22 May 2009

Mr Wiggin filled in 23 consecutive monthly forms nominating his constituency house as his second home for the purposes of his parliamentary expenses, even though he and his wife owned it outright.
After The Daily Telegraph disclosed his claims , he took to the airwaves to insist it was all an “honest mistake” from which he had not profited.He said he had mistakenly written the address of his property near Ledbury, Herefordshire, as his second home on the forms instead of his townhouse in west London.

Mr Wiggin, the MP for Leo minster and former shadow Welsh secretary, said: “I haven’t taken public money wrongly and I don’t like being lumped in with other MPs who have.

“I think people need to realise we are but human. I am sure plenty of people have got forms wrong.”

But when questioned further by this newspaper, he admitted he only spent weekends and holidays in the country, where he breeds prize-winning cattle, and the rest of the time in London. Both Mr Wiggin and his wife are registered as secretary and director of her former PR company with Companies House under their London address. The law states company directors must register their “usual” address.

It suggests that his London home is his main home, which would mean he would be ineligible to claim expenses on it.
MPs are only supposed to use public money to cover the cost of running a second home away from their constituencies or Westminster, not their primary residence.

As The Daily Telegraph disclosed , Mr Wiggin used to nominate his London address as the home on which he claimed the Additional Costs Allowance.

But in May 2004, just after he and his wife bought the £480,000 property near Ledbury, he started writing the new address on his expenses claims forms.
He submitted monthly mortgage payments on the property for two years, even though he had not taken out a loan on it. He claimed £11,514 in mortgage interest payments after filling in 23 consecutive handwritten forms.

In December 2006, the Commons fees office asked him to provide an up-to-date bank statement and he then changed his second home address back to London.
David Cameron said: “It is a bad mistake but it looks like it is an honest mistake and he was not claiming money that he was not entitled to.
“If he was, that would be totally different and he would be out of the door.”

SOURCE

Alright. I understand people make mistakes.  I make em every day.  So do you.  But do you make the same one 23 times?  Over how long?
Hey look.  If you are filling out HAND written forms, aren’t you paying a bit more attention to what you’re doing and saying? 
And then there’s this to consider.  As a lawmaker, how closely are you reading the bills and things that come before you?  Because what you do doesn’t impact you at all. But it does millions of others who don’t have your perks and free ride on our collective back.

And speaking of collective backs, my next post will cover in small detail an amazing bit of squander and monies ill spent in Ireland on MEPs. translation,
Member of European Parliament

Posted by peiper     on 05/22/2009 at 05:45 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Government • UK •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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