3:38pm Thursday 11th March 2010
LORD Hanningfield, former leader of Essex County Council, appeared in court yesterday charged with making false expenses claims.
Wearing a grey suit, the 69-year-old appeared at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court and said he would deny charges of wrongly claiming for "repayment of travelling and other expenses".
One charge states that on or about April 1, 2009, at Westminster, he made a dishonest claim for travelling allowances.
The charge states he: "purported to show that you were entitled to be paid expenses when the conditions entitled you to payment of such expenses had not been fulfilled".
Hanningfield, whose real name is Paul White, faces six charges of false accounting, relating to claims for overnight allowances from the House of Lords between 2006 and 2009, when records allegedly show he was in fact driven to his home near Chelmsford.
The sums he claimed were between £150 and £170.
Hanningfield was released on unconditional bail to appear at Southwark Crown Court on March 30.
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