Fiddling of expenses was commonplace in the Lords, court told

Lord Taylor went on trial yesterday on charges of false accounting, to which he pleaded not guilty at an earlier hearing.

Prosecutor Helen Law told Southwark Crown Court that he submitted forms stating that his main residence was in Oxford when he was actually living in London.

He claimed for travelling expenses between the two cities and for night subsistence to cover being in London, she said.

The property in Oxford was where his half-nephew lived and Lord Taylor has agreed that he never stayed at the address and had no legal or financial interest in it, Ms Law added.

Mohammed Khamisa, QC, defending Lord Taylor, told the jury the peer had been "honest and upright" in his 14 years in the House of Lords.

He said others who spoke to Lord Taylor told him his claims were "acceptable" because members did not receive a salary.

"You will hear that others with whom he worked, other peers he spoke to, had all told him that what he was doing was acceptable," he told the jury.

The court heard Lord Taylor was not a wealthy hereditary peer and had given up his job as a barrister. Mr Khamisa said: "Peers in the House of Lords are not paid a salary but an allowance system is in existence, since about 1958, enabling those like John Taylor, who don't come from a hereditary background, to claim expenses.

"And by 2006, by the time John Taylor was in the House of Lords, they had evolved a system where new peers were encouraged to claim the maximum allowance because it was recognised that if you were going to ask people to give up their day jobs, they have to be compensated in another way.

"The expenses were treated by peers as something in lieu of a salary, but not that he wasn't working, not that he wasn't attending the House of Lords, not that he wasn't attending meetings."

He continued: "He didn't consider it dishonest. He didn't consider it misleading or untrue. It was commonplace."

Ms Law said Lord Taylor faced six allegations of false accounting, relating to claims made on various dates between March 2006 and October 2007.

He sent the claims to the members' expenses section and the money was paid."It is the prosecution's case that these claim forms contained claims for some expenses that Lord Taylor was not entitled to, and that he knew that when he submitted them," Ms Law said.

She added it was the prosecution's case that Lord Taylor lied on the forms to get the expenses, and that he was being dishonest when he submitted them.

The case concerned claims for night subsistence and travelling expenses, and Ms Law told the jury to ignore claims that had been made for day subsistence and office costs.

Ms Law said Lord Taylor, 58, of Lynwood Road, Ealing, west London, claimed for travelling expenses between Oxford and London, which he said was 59 miles, and night subsistence to pay for his upkeep in London.

The Oxford address was not his address - the only address Lord Taylor lived at during that period was in Ealing, she said.

The trial was adjourned until today.