CHEER UP, MRS...

Don`t look so glum, Mrs. Uddin.  Cheer up.  For it seems we taxpayers might end up paying the £125,000 you`ve been ordered to pay back for fiddling your House of Lords expenses.

 It emerged over the weekend that the peer, who claims that she cannot afford to repay the £125,000 she has been ordered to return, may be able to dip into taxpayer funds again to pay off the bill issued by the Clerk of the Parliament.  Officials confirmed that she won`t have to pay the money back until she returns from suspension, but when she does return at the start of the next parliament, Mrs. Uddin would then be entitled to begin claiming parliamentary expenses again, including a new £300 day attendance allowance. If she attended for the 140 sitting days a year the Lords meets for, she could accumulate enough of our cash to repay the money within three years.

It has also been reported that the Crown Prosecution Service might re-open the investigation into Mrs. Uddin`s case, which did not proceed earlier for `lack of sufficient evidence.` However, police obtained statements from 12 neighbours who all said that she had never been seen at the flat in Maidstone and that they referred to the property as the “empty flat”. Water bills showed close to zero usage, leading the water company to replace Lady Uddin’s meter, assuming it was broken because usage levels were so low. At one point, some shirts blew off a nearby washing line on to the balcony of the flat, and were left to gather mould because no one was ever there to remove them.

Neighbours said that they could see that there was no furniture in the flat until press reports about her case, and no signs of occupancy other than a single unshaded light bulb, which was set on a timer switch.   Lady Uddin had asked the letting company to forward all correspondence to her London home.  

Sounds like game, set and match to the Crown Prosecution Service to me and the quicker the Lords are rid of unelected chancers like Mrs. Uddin the better.