Lord Taylor of Warwick is back in a spot of bother over claiming overnight expenses in relation to properties which he doesn’t live in – again – and if wasn’t for those pesky blogs he would have got away with it.   He claimed to the Sunday Times earlier this year that he had lived at his mother’s home in the West Midlands. However this claim turned out to be false as his mother died in 2001 and her house was sold that year.  His former wife has also confirmed that he lived in London, and nowhere else, until their separation in 2003.

Lord Taylor blogs occasionally on the Lords of the Blog site, it was on there that a co-conspirator* challenged him about the matter in the comments (since removed).

However Guido has a copy:

Lord Taylor of Warwick
Thank you for your comments. For your information, the police have examined my expenses. The police are satisfied that there has been no impropriety or any other cause for concern. They have thanked me for my cooperation, and will not be taking the matter further.

In late October Guido passed this snippet of news on to Jonathan Calvert who originally revealed the fiddles in the Sunday Times and knows more about peer’s fiddles than the House of Lord’s financial administration. Last night Jonathan got back in touch to say

… Thanks for letting me know about Lord Taylor of Warwick’s escape from the police investigation. We went back into it and the result is in the paper tomorrow. He was hiding another address (where, inevitably, he doesn’t live either) …

The result is that the Conservative peer is facing a fresh police investigation into his expenses after using the address of a second house belonging to his nephew’s companion to claim tens of thousands of pounds to which he was not entitled. To paraphrase Scooby Doo: he would have gotten away with it if it wasn’t for those pesky bloggers…

*A “Conspiracy Member“ T-shirt is on its way to Guido’s pesky source.  The best stories are always  a result of tip-offs from this blog’s readers.  Peter Hain, Prescott, Damian McBride – all undone in reality by co-conspirators as much as Guido.  You make this blog.