European court of justice orders former Tory MEP to pay back £345,289 in ‘unjustified’ claims

So he lost his job and has to pay it back. If a looter gets 6 months for nicking a loaf of bread worth 60p, how long should this guy get in prison for stealing £345,000? Oh no, sorry, he's an MP. The rules are different for him.

The former Tory MEP Den Dover, who was expelled from the Conservative party over allegations of expenses misconduct, has been ordered by the European court of justice to repay £345,289 in “unjustified” claims.

Dover, an MEP for the North West England region from 1999 to 2009, was suspended and then expelled from the party in November 2008 for “gross misconduct” after the parliament demanded repayment of £538,000 in allowances officials said should not have been claimed.

The 72-year-old stood down at the 2009 European elections and launched an appeal in the European court against the decision by European parliament administrators to seek the return of the cash.

On Thursday, the Luxembourg judges found he should pay back part of the amount, but said the European parliament had not sufficiently demonstrated that the rest was unjustified.

Dover has denied any wrongdoing over expenses he claimed between 1999 and 2008, when a total of £959,446 went to a company called MP Holdings Ltd, which names his wife and daughter as directors.

The money came from allowances MEPs receive to pay the salaries and costs of an MEP’s staff.

In 2008, the parliament’s secretary general raised questions about a possible conflict of interest and asked for full details of the use of parliamentary funds claimed by Dover.

A ruling followed that only £421,156 could be justified in salaries, national insurance and legitimate staff travel expenses.

The rest was “without justification”, the parliament said, and asked for the balance of £538,290 back.

Dover told the court it was up to the parliament to prove the payments were unjustified, pointing out in court submissions that “the requirement to provide documentation justifying each item of expenditure since 1999 did not exist when the relevant expenses were incurred”.

He said the European parliament was aware his wife and daughter held managerial positions in MP Holdings, and claimed it had never “implemented a transparent system setting out clear preconditions for reimbursement of parliamentary assistance expenditure or required members to produce documentary evidence of their parliamentary assistance expenditure”.

The Guardian