IAN Clement, former Bexley Council leader, has resigned from his £127,000 job as a deputy mayor to Boris Johnson.

A spokesman for the London Mayor's office said the resignation came "following the discovery of further discrepancies in the use of his corporate credit card".

Mr Clement, who had received a formal written warning, had been due to face London Assembly members on Wednesday (June 24) to answer questions about the use of his Greater London Authority credit card.

Mr Clement was forced to return the card, the only one issued, after it was revealed he had used it to pay for groceries in local Tesco and Sainsbury's supermarkets, personal meals and £535 for repairs to his Jaguar car.

Mayor Boris Johnson said it had been "produced before me in four pieces."

Details of his spending show Mr Clement used the card like a personal credit card, running up bills and then repaying the amounts, usually within a month.

Mr Clement is said to have told the Mayor it was the only card he had available at the time.

In total, he paid back £2,300 of personal spending between October last year and May this year.

On Friday, it was revealed Mr Clement had also been issued with a Bexley Council credit card, the only one ever issued to a councillor, while leader of the council.

He used the Bexley card from July 2007 until May 2008, when he resigned to take up his new job as deputy mayor for government and external relations.

Again he used the Bexley card for personal spending and paid back £1,220.

The bills included £364 for a hotel in Cologne on December 28 2007, and £513 for a stay at "a deluxe four star hotel" near County Hall on May 4 2008, three days after Mr Johnson's election.

It also included a £161 meal at the Oxo Tower restaurant in London and an £102 meal at the Old Bexley Greek Taverna in Bexley Village.

In his resignation letter to Mr Johnson today, Mr Clement said: "Having considered my position over the weekend and in light of our conversation this morning, I am formally tendering my resignation as deputy mayor for government and external relations.

"It has been a pleasure to work for you and I am sorry that I have let you down and deflected away from the excellent work you and indeed your team are doing in delivering for Londoners."

Mr Johnson replied: "Thank you for your letter of resignation, which I accept with immediate effect.

"As you know, I was extremely angry at the liberties you took with your corporate credit card; but last week I made the essential distinction between behaviour that is crass and anything that amounts to dishonesty or deception.

"In the light of the further discrepancies in your expenses that have emerged this morning, it is clear to both of us that your position is untenable."

He added: "Thank you for all your hard work in the year you have spent here.

"You played a major part in helping to extend the Freedom Pass for 24 hours across London, and in pioneering Open London, and in launching the City Charter."

Jennette Arnold, who chairs the London Assembly's business management and administration committee(BMAC), said: “Ian Clement’s repeated misuse of his City Hall credit card was clearly a serious breach of Greater London Authority rules for which he has answered with his job.

"However, Mr Clement’s resignation cannot be considered an end to the matter.

"Serious questions remain about how long the misuse of the card continued, apparently undetected, and the type of expenditure that was charged to the GLA without being repaid.

She added: "These issues will be pursued by assembly members at Wednesday’s meeting of BMAC, where we will question the Mayor’s chief of staff, Sir Simon Milton and GLA executive director of resources, Martin Clarke.”