It is reported in the Telegraph today that Conservative MEP Giles Chichester paid almost half-a-million-pounds from his EU expense account in the last ten years to his own family firm. The funds came from his £160,000-a-year staffing allowance paid out to all Members of the European Parliament.
In the article it’s exposed how Chichester:
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- Paid his company £445,000 since 1996 for secretarial and other duties;
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- Paid the Company Directors (who were solely Mr Chichester and his wife) £47,792 since 2002
- Paid £40,000 rent between 1996 and 2003 for office space in the same address given by the Chichester household.
With your money Giles Chichester has allegedly paid himself with staffing expenses, paid rent to himself for using his home as an office and paid his company for miscellaneous duties.
Hopefully a thorough investigation will be under way as soon as possible. But it begs the question: how many more politicians are fiddling the expenses system to fund a lavish lifestyle at our expense? No wonder the tax burden has gone through the roof if their attitude to public spending borders on an addiction.