Ben Chapman overclaimed £15,000 on mortgage.

Another grasping champagne socialist pig stealing your taxes....He said: 

“I understand that many of my constituents are concerned about claims perceived to be excessive. I share my constituents’ concerns. My own claims have always been made according to the advice of the House of Commons administration.”

Documents seen by the Telegraph suggest that between December 2002 and October 2003, Mr Chapman deliberately over-claimed for interest on the mortgage of his London house by about £15,000. Astonishingly, unlike in the cases of Mr Morley and David Chaytor, another Labour backbencher who claimed £12,925 for a mortgage that had been repaid, he did this with the permission of an official in the Commons fees office.

Mr Chapman said last night that he had been “extremely distressed” to learn in 2003 that the arrangement should not have been made.

However, when asked whether he would repay the money, he said: “The answer is no. It’s all something that was agreed a long time ago.” Until December 2002, Mr Chapman, the MP for Wirral South, paid about £1,900 per month in interest on a £380,000 mortgage on the house, in Lambeth, south-east London. He claimed most of his payments, as much as allowed at the time, back on his expenses.

It also included a £100-£250 weekly gardening bill, hundreds of pounds on homeware from John Lewis and Laura Ashley and £130 for maintenance to his Aga. “It came with the house,” he said.

So the lesson there is, if you are found guilty of fraud or steal money/goods that do not belong to you: Keep them, after all if an MP can get away with it...

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