Andrew Turner has apologised today after a constituent found a mistake in his expense claims following publication by the House of Commons yesterday of all claims over the past four years. A constituent who lives in Wootton discovered that a receipt for £162.04 covering a carpet cleaner and sundry items was submitted twice, once in 2006 and again in 2007 and raised the matter with him this afternoon.

Mr Turner apologised for the mistake and said that he was looking into how the error arose to ensure that it could not happen again. In the meantime he had spoken this afternoon to the Fees Office bringing their attention to the mistake and had written out a cheque to refund the overpayment. He thanked the constituent for bringing the error to his attention promptly.

Speaking this afternoon Mr Turner said:

“I have always adopted standard business practices in supporting all claims with evidence of expenditure, although the rules were very lax and up to £250 could be claimed without any evidence at all. Without the receipts being available this would never have come to light. I am very embarrassed at this mistake and apologise to my constituents for the error.”

He went on to say:

“In the past an invoice from the Chamber of Commerce was submitted twice in error but my own internal procedures discovered the error; this was shown on my claim of 20th October 2005. These claims were for two different years and I think that was why it wasn’t picked up.”

END Contact : Andrew Turner’s office 01983 530808