Former House of Commons Expenses Clerk Andrew Gibson pleads guilty to fraud in London, England

A former House of Commons official who fraudulently claimed thousands of pounds of expenses by forging MPs’ signatures on claim forms yesterday (31 August) pleaded guilty to fraud.

During a hearing at Southwark Crown Court, Andrew Gibson, 50, of Athol Square, Limehouse E14, a former enquiry officer in the House of Commons fees office, pleaded guilty to three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception.

Toni Pomfret, 49, of Pembroke Drive, Goffs Oak, Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, pleaded guilty to three counts of acquiring criminal property.

The pair – both of whom were keen gamblers and had accrued large of amounts of personal debt – met while working at Royal Mail during the 1990s. Both had subsequently taken voluntary redundancy before finding alternative employment.

Their crimes came to light during the recent enquiry by the House of Commons Audit Committee in to the alleged misuse of MPs’ expenses.

At the request of the Audit Committee, former MPs were asked to examine past expense claims before they were published in the media under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. When copies of claims for the years 2004/2005 were sent to former MP for Linlithgow, West Lothian, Tam Dalyell, his wife (who had been employed as his secretary during his entire parliamentary career) noticed that a signature purporting to be that of her husband’s was clearly not his. Furthermore, he had never received services of that nature from the company described. The House of Commons was then alerted to the possibility of a fraudulent claim.

The form had been submitted to the House of Commons ‘Department of Finance & Administration’ in July 2005, for the allowance years 2004/2005. The claim purported to be from Tam Dalyell. Attached to the claim form was an invoice from ‘TP Typing & Secretarial Services’. The invoice described ‘four weeks typing and secretarial services, April 2005’ and amounted to £1,600. The total charge (including VAT at 17.5 per cent) was £1,880. The claim was not questioned at the time. Tam Dalyell had already left Parliament when this claim was submitted.

Further enquiries conducted by the House of Commons revealed that a further two false expense claims had been submitted in the name of two other MPs by the same ‘company’. These were in the name of Linda Perham, former MP for Ilford North, and Matthew Green, former MP for Ludlow, Shropshire, both of whom had also left the House of Commons after the 2005 election.

All of the claims – totalling £6,000 – had been paid in to a bank account opened in the name of T Pomfret.

Staff at the House of Commons alerted officers from the Metropolitan Police Service’s Economic and Specialist Crime Unit who began an investigation.

Officers interviewed Pomfret on 13 January. Shortly after this interview they were contacted by Gibson who was arrested on suspicion of obtaining three money transfers by deception and false accounting.

It emerged during the course of the investigation that Gibson – whose job as an enquiry officer involved advising MPs on expenses procedures – owed Pomfret money. Using his intimate knowledge of the Common’s expenses system he submitted the false claims in a bid to repay his debt.

The pair are remanded on bail and will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on 30 September.