Morning:
8°c
Boris deputy charged with fraud: I made mistakes and paid price
Ross Lydall8 Sep 2009
Ian Clement, Boris Johnson's former deputy mayor, has broken his silence after being forced to quit in the wake of a City Hall expenses scandal.
Mr Clement, who was today appearing in court after being charged with five counts of fraud, castigated a former Tory colleague for assuming his guilt and implied he was being more harshly treated than MPs and police officers who had misused their expenses.
He accused James Cleverly, a Tory member of the London Assembly and aide to Mr Johnson, of jumping to conclusions and argued that he was merely an "ordinary person who made mistakes and paid a price".
Mr Clement, 44, who earned £127,000 a year, was due before City of Westminster magistrates to face charges of fraudulently using his City Hall credit card to pay for five meals worth £227 in total.
He left his post as deputy mayor for government and external relations on 22 June. In total, he charged £7,000 to the credit card, including more than £2,300 of personal expenditure that he has since repaid.
But a blog posting by Mr Cleverly after Mr Clement was charged last Friday prompted the former Bexley council leader to break cover for the first time since leaving City Hall.
Mr Cleverly had written that he was saddened by the case and "still at a loss" to understand why Mr Clement would "throw so much away over such stupidly trivial sums of money".
Mr Cleverly added: "However it is absolutely right that he has been charged, in any other walk of life he would have been and people involved in politics cannot be seen to be above or immune from the law."
Mr Clement hit back in an online reply, saying: "I am sadden [sic] that instead of actually contacting me, something you have not done since I resigned on the 22nd of June, to at least hear my side of the story...you chose to vent forth on your blog indiscriminately.
"Further as you do not know what I have been charged with then how can you say that it is absolutely right that I have been charged and by inference assume my guilt.
"I also assume by your comments that you do not support the Met Police amnesty for officers who have misused their corporate credit cards...In conclusion, I would also ask you to note that I resigned, I did not receive or seek any type of payoff, that I was never a professional politician as such...but an ordinary person who made mistakes and paid a price for those mistakes."
The row came as the London Assembly called on the Mayor to introduce random checks of all City Hall expense claims to help eradicate fraud.
Mr Cleverly said: "What I'm saying is that, as politicians, we have to be seen to be held to account."
Reader views (1)
The Mayor? you've got to be joking, the Mayor of what? Johnson haven't got a clue. London is becoming a laughingstock with this clown in charge. Whilst londoners struggle through this recession they have a so called Maypor who thinks a little earner on the side amounting to £250,000 is just chicken feed. You could say he is treating the idiots who put him in power with the contempt they desreve. Hardly the type of man who would worry about his colleagues expenses, is he?
- James, Manchester England, 08/09/2009 13:34
Report abuse
