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Maria Miller 'to have to repay thousands of pounds and apologise over expenses claims
Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127 Forum Member
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Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127 Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127 Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127 Ethel_Fred
Posts: 34,127
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Followed by ''You're nicked''.
More likely pigs will fly.
That's assuming the story is true of course.
Still why leak a story properly when you can mislead and misrepresent ...........
In terms of the expenses scandal it's not obvious as to why some got jailed, some just got a black mark and a fine and others transgressions were totally ignored.
A lot of MPs have however made a huge profit on London properties which were in effect financed by the taxpayer and won't be required to pay a penny back when they sell them. That was the big scandal and it was barely addressed!
One third of MPS are also buy to let landlords which might explain why they fall to sort out the nations housing problems.
Something you could try yourself.
The crux of the story is her remortgaging - at the tax payers expense, twice, on a home she already owned, each time increasing the cost to the tax payer with her keeping the capital. There are also rules for that she appears to have skirted around.
It is profiteering at the tax payers expense, and if a benefit recipient had tried such a trick they would now be in prison let alone debating if they are naughty enough to have to pay back a few grand.
Has she been fined? The five grand is what she overclaimed. She has to pay it back.
MPs have yet to decide what censure she should face. If any. Apologise to the HoC or face a ban maybe.
My local MP was jailed for expenses fraud.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/8513576/Former-MP-Eric-Illsley-released-from-jail.html
I don't have any sympathy for him. But it does make you wonder why some were jailed and others not. The stupid ones got convicted while the smarter ones weren't:D
I'm not so sure, the main thrust of the expenses scandal took place when Brown was in No. 10 and because because it was new news, that's why the stories lasted, it had nothing to do with who was in government at the time.
Fast forward five years, we've had many many stories on this and people aren't just as interested as they were when the initial scandal broke, I don't remember a great deal of coverage when MPs and Lords went to prison and I don't recall that many people talking about it on here (compared to the initial scandal coverage). I suspect this story won't have much legs because it isn't really news.
We certainly are, it's just that some are more in it than others.;-)
Well she is political editor of the Sunday Times - so she is bound to be a bit Tory friendly.
And I am sure £5k is not a lot to her - she went to Gordounstoun (same school as Prince Charles) and lives with her rich hubby in the Cotswolds.
Party doesn't really matter - there was dodgyness on all sides.
However this does look very odd - she bought the house for £234,000 and then increased the mortgage to £575,000 thus allowing her to claim more in expenses (i.e. nearly £100,000). Why on earth was she able to claim interest on double the purchase price - and why did she remortgage for nearly double the purchase price. Were we paying for a nice new car or holidays - or a conservatory? Can anyone explain or justify this - cos those improvements if made seem to have added to the profit of £1m she has made?
"Parliamentary authorities first launched an inquiry into Mrs Miller’s claims more than a year ago following an investigation by The Telegraph.
She was exposed after claiming more than £90,000 over four years for a second home where her parents lived in South London - rather than submitting claims for cottages she rented in her Basingstoke constituency.
The Parliamentary Commissioner is understood to have concluded that the arrangement did not lead to Mrs Miller benefiting financially. However, the Commissioner is unlikely to have been aware of the seven-figure profit made in recent weeks by the minister.
Mr and Mrs Miller sold the large house in Wimbledon for £1.47 million on Valentine’s Day of this year. They originally bought the house for £234,000 – which means the house value increased by £1,236,000.
Between 2005 and 2009, she claimed £90,718, which was only £115 less than the total amount she could have claimed. Although the house only cost £234,000 in 1995, the Millers took out a large mortgage against the house – and claimed the interest on the mortgage from the taxpayer.
In November 2007, they increased the mortgage from £525,000 to £575,000. The rules state that MPs could only increase their mortgages to pay the costs of necessary improvements – and that these should be signed off with the parliamentary authorities.
The Parliamentary inquiry discovered that Mrs Miller over-claimed for her mortgage and so should repay around £5,000 to the expenses watchdog."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/mps-expenses/10729984/Maria-Miller-to-have-to-repay-thousands-of-pounds-and-apologise-over-expenses-claims.html
all parties are the same. definitely not In it together.
more like "in it to win it"
I saw Cameron on TV tying to defend her and he said she was investigated by an 'independent panel' consisting of some none politicians as if that means they'd be totally neutral and fair, when we all know they were likely appointed as they'd find things the 'right way' and be 'sympathetic' for some future reward (honours, quango appointment etc), in the future.
The scale is different. Not to mention how the fraud is dealt with. If I took money I shouldn't of. The state would be down on me like a ton of bricks. Yet when a member of the establishment does it an apology (I'm sorry I got caught) will suffice.
According to this. If everybody who is on benefits were fiddling their claim. It averages £55 each. Assuming the cost of benefit fraud is £1.2bn. As opposed to the £1.2 Million that mps wrongly claimed. That averages out at £1858 per mp. (again assuming that all are on the fiddle)
http://politicalscrapbook.net/2014/04/cabinet-ministers-expense-abuse-is-105-times-average-benefits-fraud/