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MP worked for a City firm while on paid sick leave from Commons
Danny Brierley22 Oct 2008
A LONDON MP has admitted working for a City investment company while on paid sick leave from the Commons.
Former Conservative Andrew Pelling cancelled all his constituency surgeries and public appearances during his six-month break from Westminster which was ordered by his GP.
But he carried on doing paid client relationship work for Tokai Tokyo a job he first entered in the register of members' interests in March last year.
The Croydon Central MP, now an independent, also admitted to still receiving his £61,820-a-year MP wage while being off sick with depression between January and July this year.
He claims Tokai Tokyo, where he is head of origination, became a "safe haven" that played a "fundamental role" in helping him back to health.
He refused to apologise for continuing to work there while collecting his Commons salary but says he felt "bad" about handing casework over to a fellow MP.
He said: "I was working my way back to the House and was just going there to vote. It was still a struggle to go but I felt if I had not gone in for votes, the electorate would not forgive. It was not easy."
Mr Pelling, 49, who became ill after being arrested over an allegation that he beat his second wife Lucy, admits becoming addicted to the sleeping pill Zopiclone.
He also says he became bulimic while trying to combat a side effect which made him put on weight.
He said: "It is easy to become dependent on these drugs. I was absolutely addicted to them.
"If I was on them now I would be thinking how soon can I get home and take them.
"It is an awful dependency but people suffering love to take them, and they take more as after a while the effect begins to fade."
He added: "When you're suffering from mental health problems, to some extent you begin to celebrate being alone so that it almost becomes self-enforcing."
Mr Pelling, who was also a member of the London Assembly, was accused of assaulting his second wife in September last year.
The case, which coincided with Lucy, 28, telling him she was carrying his child, was not pursued after being sent to the Crown Prosecution Service for consideration.
Mr Pelling was married to first wife Sanae for 16 years and the couple have three children.
He met Lucy while she was a member of his 2005 campaign team. After a divorce he married her and gave her a job as his parliamentary assistant at Westminster.
Shortly after her husband's arrest, Lucy told a Sunday newspaper that he had considered defecting to Labour or the Liberal Democrats and that he believed that most "normal" people preferred Gordon Brown to David Cameron.
She also said that he looked down on his "chav" constituents and refused to have his baby born in the local Mayday hospital because it was "not good enough for him".
He then lost the party whip and announced he would not stand at the next general election.
Reader views (21)
If he were a mere humble benefits claimant, at the bottom of the pile, he'd be jailed for this..
- Suzanne, Essex, 23/10/2008 09:57
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Get him out of Parliament and make him pay back the money he received. We have no respect for MPs unless they get this sorted.
- Maggie, London, 23/10/2008 09:22
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Can some policeman or lawyer explain why this isn't fraud and why the rozzers aren't already interviewing him.
- I Swerve, London, 23/10/2008 00:34
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You have to ask how this information was made known to the press, and by whom and why now.
Right now Pelling (quite a nice sincere bloke) is very publicly at odds with the Croydon Tory party. It wouldn't be at all surprising if they were stirring things up because the questions he has asked about their economic competence have hit home.
Croydon Council have spent loads of taxpayers' cash fighting a losing battle to get a Labour-invented scheme for an arena to be built outside East Croydon station. After years of this rubbish, they lost - and the popular alternative that will see a new open space being built and help preserve the Warehouse Theatre, finally got the go ahead.
Croydon Council also backed a single-minded bid to build a huge new shopping centre - "Park Place" - in the town centre, and have watched locally-owned small businesses go bust as a result of the consequent Compulsory Purchase Orders. Ironically, ineptitude on the part of the developers and their town hall pals, cold-feet by the likes of John Lewis and the recession have put paid to Park Place - but the small shops and restaurants are gone.
Pelling has done the right thing by calling those responsible to account. Rather than respond directly, I suspect this is their way of handling such criticism. If the Standard wants to report real political scandals, follow the dirty money outlined above - Mr Pelling will gladly point the way.
- C. Nichol, London, 22/10/2008 22:14
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This is out and out fraud. When are MPs who abuse the system so flagrantly, and who would be prosecuted if they were not benefiting from parliamentary privilege going to be brought into line?
- Anthony Corbett, London, 22/10/2008 21:02
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What happened to honour and shame? He shouldn't have to be told to resign. "It's a fair cop' Mr.Pelling now be on your way!
- Mark, London, 22/10/2008 20:39
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Just another bent as a corkscrew parasite!
- Alan, Chigwell.UK, 22/10/2008 20:23
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There's a case for doing therapeutic work in order to get your life back together again, but it should be done on a voluntarily basis. Pelling should have donated his 'earnings' to a charitable cause supporting mental health.
- Dhanraj, Basildon, Essex, 22/10/2008 19:54
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Val Daniels - try reading the article again. He is NOT a Conservative. He was thrown out when they withdrew the party whip. They want nothing to do with the man, in effect. Call it what it is, not and simple opportunity to put down 'the other side'.
The man broke all kinds of rules/regulations, and who knows, even some laws perhaps. Treat him according to the law like anyone else working a fiddle.
- Rogan, Irving, 22/10/2008 19:06
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This bloke had his whole head in the trough.
- Colin, Barking Essex, 22/10/2008 17:35
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No doubt he also claimed his expenses whilst he was on six months leave. The man should be sacked. What's the difference between him and someone claiming benefit they are not entitled to.
- Gilm, Bristol England, 22/10/2008 17:35
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Will he go to jail? He SHOULD, but I bet he gets off with a little wrist slap and maybe a little fine.
- Tommy Trotte, Monmouth, UK, 22/10/2008 16:59
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Another stone lifted and what's underneath, a sleazy Tory. No surprise there then.
- Val Daniels, Mijas Costa. Spain, 22/10/2008 14:56
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Poor poor man, he should have nice holiday, can I suggest a few weeks on a Russian Billionaires yacht moored off corfu, its all the rage at the moment.
- David, London UK, 22/10/2008 14:36
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Sack him
- N Grinsell, London, 22/10/2008 14:21
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surely this must be breaking his contract of employment. at a minimum he must repay his salary, and possibly the police should consider prosecuting him. how disgraceful that he took his MP salary whilst on sick leave, and then worked for another company. No wonder no-one has any respect for MPs.
- Tony, london, 22/10/2008 13:34
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A case of blatent fraud, make him pay back the tax 'chav' payers money and get rid of him. If a normal civil servant did that, they would be sacked on the spot!
- Triffidqueen, London, 22/10/2008 12:58
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The normal penalty for working whilst sick is instant dismissal at best, and often criminal prosecution. As always, normal rules don't apply to MPs.
- Bob Smith, London,UK, 22/10/2008 12:26
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He should be turfed out of Parliament!
- Mark, London, 22/10/2008 12:23
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Make him repay all the salary he was paid whilst ill and working and boot him off his parliamentary seat.
- Squiz, Islington, 22/10/2008 12:04
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But he's not too posh to steal from his country, is he?
- L.Taubler, London / UK, 22/10/2008 12:02
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