Lord Hanningfield arrested in expenses inquiry – again, but gets bail

Tory peer has already served a term in prison for expenses fraud and was released five days before his rearrest on fresh charges Lord Hanningfield, the Tory peer jailed for fiddling his expenses, has been arrested on suspicion of making fraudulent expenses claims from Essex county council. Essex police would not confirm Hanningfield had been brought in for questioning but sources confirmed to the Press Association that the peer had been arrested. His arrest came five days after he was released from his prison term. A spokesman for the Essex force would only confirm that a 70-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of fraud as part of an investigation into expenses claimed at Essex county council. He has been bailed to return in January 2012. Hanningfield, the former leader of Essex county council, was jailed for nine months in July for fiddling his parliamentary expenses. The former Lords opposition frontbencher claimed £13,379 for overnight stays in London when he was not there. On Friday, after his release from prison, he was spotted by a local newspaper walking his dog near his home in West Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, Essex. He told the Colchester Gazette after his release thathe was relieved his ordeal was over but said there was more to tell. “There is much more to my side of the story, which will be revealed when I am ready,” he said. “This expenses situation has been going on for two and a half years and I am glad it is all over. “I am feeling OK about things at the moment but I just want a couple of weeks to myself to relax and let everything settle down.” He said of his time at a minimum-security prison in Kent: “Some of the people who were in prison were better than some of the people I have met on the outside.” A former pig farmer, Hanningfield – who was tried under his name, Paul White – was found guilty of six counts of false accounting following an eight-day trial at Chelmsford crown court in May. The judge, Mr Justice Saunders, said that when it came to sentencing the case was distinguished from other expenses cases because of Hanningfield’s poor health. The anxiety and depression he suffered over the case “goes well beyond the level of depression suffered by many people of good character who find themselves for the first time before the courts”, said Saunders, sitting at Maidstone crown court. “He has been diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression and he is being treated for that condition. The bringing of these charges brought about the end of his work which was very important to him. “He is 70 and his physical health is not good. Imprisonment will be harder for him than for others who are mentally and physically fitter. Also, while others convicted in this series of prosecutions will have some chance to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of the public, Lord Hanningfield is less likely to be able to do that because of his age, but it is not impossible that he will.” MPs’ expenses House of Commons Conservatives Sandra Laville guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 14, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.