Tory MP Amess pays back £106 after overclaiming council tax (From Echo)

Tory MP Amess pays back £106 after overclaiming council tax

5:49pm Monday 22nd June 2009 in

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THE Southend West MP has paid back £106 of his expenses claims, despite previously telling the Echo no repayments were neccessary.

David Amess made a statement saying both the Fees Office and Conservative Party scrutiny committee had said he was not required pay money back.

Now it has been revealed he has repaid £106. It is thought this is due to an over claim of council tax.

Mr Amess also claims back fees he has paid Southend West Conservative Association, at Iveagh Hall, in Leigh Road, where he holds constituency surgeries. This totals £20,000, with amounts rising from £3,500 in 2004/05 to £4,750 in 2007/08.

It is a 50 per cent contribution to costs each year for the use of the hall, staff and office equipment in connection with surgeries and constituency matters.

The Echo asked for an explanation of the fees, and why they charged them to both the chairman of the association and Mr Amess, but neither responded.

The MP also claimed for staffing cover in February 2005, and there is a receipt for £3.99 for a bottle of Crows Landing Chardonnay wine.

AMESS CLAIMS £36,000 FOR CONSULTANTS' ADVICE

DAVID Amess has claimed back costs of more than £36,000 for using a consultancy firm to carry out research on his behalf.

The payments to the Southend West MP, over four years to Westminster Consultancy, total £36,040, with a further claim of £1,500 not paid in November 2007.

A scribbled receipt reads “research for questions and speeches in accordance with your instructions” and “special subject research for debates and questions”.

However, there are no further details as to what subject areas or Parliamentary questions they refer, and some details on the invoice are blacked out.

Nor does it say how many hours, or how many people, worked on this research on his behalf. It has raised questions about why his own staff are not carrying out this role.

Individual invoices range from £1,250 to £3,050. The most recent was in November 2007, but was not paid out.

Mr Amess has also claimed for using accountants.

He uses Landau Morley chartered accountants, in Wembley, at a cost, over four years, of £3,127 for his self assessment tax returns, calculating tax liability and correspondence with the Inland Revenue.

This includes a fee of £250 in July 2005 for “corresponding with the Inland Revenue in connection with a claim on Parliamentary expenses in respect of expenditure incurred for the excess paid by you on the libel policy at the House of Commons”. There is no further explanation.

A separate legal claim for £258 for David Price solicitors, in April 2007, was claimed for, but the detail is blacked out and marked “private and confidential”.

Peter Welch, Lib Dem prospective Parliamentary candidate for Southend West, is demanding more openness from Mr Amess.

He has written to the MP, and told the Echo: “Taxpayers are furious about the blacked-out non-publication of MPs’ expenses.

“The published invoices are handwritten, do not give a VAT number, and give only the vaguest indi-cation of the services provided.”