25 Jan 2011

Lord Taylor guilty over expense claims

Lord Taylor of Warwick has been found guilty of making false expense claims. The jury agreed that he misled the Members’ Expenses Section in the House of Lords, taking more than £11,000.

Lord Taylor has been found guilty of making false expemse claims (Getty)

Lord Taylor stood impassively in the dock as the guilty verdict on all six counts was delivered.

The jury took just over five hours to reach the verdict.

Lord Taylor, of Lynwood Road, Ealing, west London, was standing trial for making £11,277.80-worth of claims on various dates between March 2006 and October 2007.

The first claim was for £1,555.70, the second for £2,042.80, the third was £1,600.70, the fourth £2,309.50, the fifth £2,421.80, and the final claim was for £1,347.30.

John Taylor became the first black Conservative peer when he took his seat in the House of Lords in 1996, following a failed attempt to get elected as MP for Cheltenham in 1992.

Born in Birmingham in 1952, he earned a scholarship as a schoolboy and was then trained as a barrister, specialising in criminal law.

After his campaign to win a seat in the House of Commons, he established himself as a commentator on television and radio.

“Lord Taylor did not have a main home in Oxford and he was not entitled to claim as if he did.” Prosecutor Helen Law

Throughout the trial, Lord Taylor maintained he was following the advice given to him by fellow Peers, that nominating a main residence outside of the capital was a way to earn money “in lieu of salary”.

The jury of seven men and five women agreed with the case against Lord Taylor, that he misled the Members’ Expenses Section in the House of Lords to swindle more than £11,000.

During the trial, prosecutor Helen Law said: “The prosecution say this case is very simple. 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.

Lord 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.

He never stayed there, and had no legal or financial interest in it.

Robert Taylor told the court from the witness box that he doubted the motives of his relative when he found out he had used his address.

He said: “I was shocked. I was quite angry, actually, because I had always wondered why he had been quite so friendly, because we didn’t on the face of it have a lot in common.

“At the point where we were being doorstepped by the media, I suddenly realised that maybe his wasn’t actually a real friendship at all.”