IAN CLEMENT: Credit card expenses scandal deepens

More details have emerged of his Greater London Authority bills - revealing repairs to his Jaguar, supermarket shopping and upgrades to first-class flights.

The rules governing the use of Mr Clement's Greater London Authority (GLA) credit card were quite clear: "Corporate credit cards must only be used for GLA expenditure; there should be no private use."

Yet former Bexley Council leader Mr Clement, whose salary as deputy mayor was £127,784, chalked up £2,300.81 worth of private expenditure on the card.

He spent £535.49 having his Jaguar convertible repaired and £606.73 doing the shopping at Tesco in Sidcup and Crayford Sainsbury's.

Mr Clement, aged 44, also paid for at least 15 meals, costing a total of more than £900, using the corporate card, plus topping up his Oyster card.

Echoing his time as leader of Bexley Council, Mr Clement was the only one of London Mayor Boris Johnson's appointees who had a GLA credit card and only because he personally asked for one.

How personal spending came to light

Martin Clarke, the GLA's director of resources, told the London Assembly's business management and administration committee Mr Clement had never been given an exemption from the rule which banned using the card for personal expenditure.

Mr Clarke said the card had been approved because Mr Clement had taken charge of a review of the GLA's Brussels office, so he could book travel arrangements and hotels.

Committee member Mike Tuffrey said Mr Clement's spending on the corporate card of £7,114 was only part of his expenses claims, which he claimed totalled more than £9,000 between July 2008 and January this year.

Mr Clarke said the other claims had been mainly for taxis and essential travel and agreed he would make them public.

He said the first time it had come to his notice that Mr Clement had used the GLA card for personal spending was in November last year when he had used it to pay for repairs to his Jaguar.

Checks revealed he had also paid for a meal.

Mr Clement was asked for a cheque to cover the spending, which he provided.

Warned about credit card use

Mr Clarke said he personally spoke to Mr Clement and told him he must not use the card for personal spending, and also told the GLA staff who processed his expenses claims.

His first written warning about personal use had come in May this year when he used the card to pay for shopping in Sainsbury's, which Mr Clarke said "was clearly personal use".

Mr Clarke said there were concerns someone else may have used the card, and Mr Clement was sent an extract of the rules on using the credit card, which detailed the ban on personal use.

He said after he spoke to Mr Clement "I fully expected him to heed my advice and I was surprised to see personal claims again in February this year."

Not good value for money

Assembly member Andrew Boff questioned why Mr Clement had been allowed to charge for a meal with Kulveer Ranger, the Mayor's director of transport policy, when it was clearly against the rules.

Mr Clarke said it had been his mistake.

He added: "But the responsibility lies with Ian Clement not to make inappropriate claims."

Mr Clarke said there had been occasions before November last year when Mr Clement's use of the credit card had not been good value for money.

He said Mr Clement had used it several times to get a cash advance when travelling abroad.

Mr Clarke said although it had been a legitimate claim, Mr Clement had been advised each time he should use the GLA's exchequer department.

Under questioning, Mr Clarke said in the two years he had been resources director, no-one except Mr Clement had ever had to pay cheques to cover personal expenses, and previous to that, he thought there may have been only a couple of occasions.

Mr Clarke said the GLA did not vet people before handing over a corporate card.

'Onus on individual to be honest'

Sir Simon Milton, deputy mayor for policy and planning, said after Mr Johnson (below) had discovered Mr Clement had used the card to upgrade his plane tickets for Bejiing, against the Mayor's express wish that people should travel economy class, the Mayor "told him he though he should not have a corporate card and that he should give it back."

Sir Simon said he only became aware there was a problem in early June, when there was a lack of back-up information for Mr Clement's claims and a secretary had told him there was also an issue over Mr Clement's personal use of the card.

He said it was then the Mayor had called in Mr Clement and took back the card.

Assembly member Len Duvall said within 24 hours of the publication of Mr Clement's expenses "issues started to unravel".

He asked why lunches had been approved for payments which turned out to be dinners.

Mr Duvall also pointed out some of Mr Clement's expenses claims had been paid without any back-up receipts.

Mr Clarke admitted the claims had not been checked closely enough.

But Mr Duvall said there was an onus on the individual to be honest.

Mr Clarke agreed and said there could not be a cost-effective system for checking expenses, if it was based on mistrust.

He admitted a number of claims for entertaining other GLA members had been approved and paid when they should not have been.

But he said honesty on the part of the person claiming was a fundamental part of the system.

Resignation was 'cleanest, quickest and cheapest' option

Mr Duvall asked why Mr Clement had been allowed to resign instead of being sacked, "when there were issues of trust and confidence, verging on police involvement".

Sir Simon said under the circumstances Mr Johnson (below) was clear Mr Clement would have to leave.

He said resignation was the cleanest, quickest and cheapest way to do it.

He said when confronted Mr Clement had written his resignation letter on the spot.

Sir Simon added it had not been clear at that point there was behaviour "verging on the criminal".

Mr Clement's private use of the card also included two meals at the posh London restaurant Le Pont de la Tour at £106 and £125 and two meals at Butler's Wharf Chop House costing £34 and £57.

Other meals included Salvatories Bar (£59), Strada at More London (£18), The Vine in Sevenoaks (£82), Curry Mahal, Sidcup (£60), Strand Palace Hotel (£130), The Garrison (£60), Chez Kristof-Deli (£66), Tirra Brindisa (£126), Acorn House Restaurant (£80), Aviv Restaurant (£31) and Pizza Express (£45).

Mr Clement was asked to pay back all of those claims.

Shocked by business entertainment expenses

Assembly member Darren Johnson said when Mr Clement's expenses had been made public he had been more shocked by the legitimate expenditure.

He said: "Do you think the frequency and the level of business entertainment paid for by the GLA, through Ian Clement, seems reasonable?"

Sir Simon replied: "I also thought it was surprising and it is certainly higher than any other advisor undertakes."

But he said it had been part of Mr Clement's job to network with other boroughs.

He said two things had struck him.

One was whether the claims were too high and that there had been an inbalance because most of those being entertained by Mr Clement had been Tory politicians.

Between September last year and May this year, Mr Clement spent almost £700 entertaining fellow Tory politicians 18 times, several of whom now claim they did not attend the meals claimed for by him.

These included five claims involving Kensington and Chelsea council leader Merrick Cockell, who is also chairman of the London councils, the umbrella group for all London boroughs.

These were mainly for coffee at London hotels, such as the Hilton and Strand Palace and breakfast at the Radisson Edwardian.

But one was for a £51.70 dinner at the New Mayflower Chineses restaurant, which Mr Cockell is now said to dispute he attended.

'Relationship' with 23-year-old woman

There was also a £65 dinner for Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers, whose agent is Claire Dowson.

Miss Dowson, 23, met Mr Clement when they both worked on Mr Johnson's mayoral campaign and she is said to be having a relationship with Mr Clement, despite the fact he has a partner and small son.

Some newspapers report her as saying she is Mr Clement's fiancee.

It is alleged Mr Clement was dining with Miss Dowson, 21 years his junior, when several of the disputed meals were taken.

One was a £72.50 "lunch" with Barnet Council leader Michael Freer at the Blue Olive, a restaurant near Miss Dowson's home, although the bill was actually paid at 11.23pm.

Mr Freer says he was at a funeral in Scotland on the date in question.

Another was a £32.50 lunch with Enfield Council leader Michael Rye, who also denies having lunch with Mr Clement on that day.

Again, the restaurant was close to Miss Dowson's home.

Mr Clement also spent £75.38 of the GLA's money dining at London's Cinnamon Club with David Ruffley, Tory MP for Bury St Edmunds.

Then there was the £35.10 spent lunching with Tory MP for Putney, Roehampton and Southfields Justine Greening, at Pizza Express, which she has been quoted describing as "wholly inappropriate as a business expense".

Treats for Bexley councillors

Mr Clement also spent some of the GLA's cash treating old Bexley Council colleagues.

Councillor Katie Perrior, who worked with Mr Clement on Mr Johnson's mayoral election campaign, discussed "PR advice" over a £28.18 lunch at Strada.

Bexley backbench Councillors Joe Pollard and James Spencer also lunched at Strada with Mr Clement, costing the GLA £32.50.

Another backbencher, Councillor Melvin Seymour, was treated to a £26.10 lunch at Pizza Express, while Bexley cabinet member for the environment and London Assembly member Councillor Gareth Bacon went for dinner with Mr Clement at Baltizer, which cost £55.70.

Overseas trips and meals out

But Mr Clement infuriated the Mayor when he spent £2,400 upgrading economy seats on two trips to China during the Bejiing Olympic Games after Mr Johnson has asked people to travel economy class.

Mr Clement was travelling with a second person on the two trips, for which Mr Clement claimed a total of £2,876, including a £153 dinner for "his team".

Mr Clement also spent £2,485 on a four-day trip to New York to investigate the possibility of setting up a 101 non-emergency call system for London similar to the one in New York, although no assembly member could recall seeing a report on Mr Clement's findings, despite him being asked to write one.

The trip included a £704 dinner for five at a New York restaurant, where the guests included the city's deputy mayor and advisor, Mr Clement and Merrick Cockell, and a hotel bill for Mr Clement of £1,540.

Speaking again at the London Assembly's business management and administration committee, Sir Simon Milton said the Mayor had only become aware of the cost of the meal, which included two $105 bottles of wine, after the expenses row had blown up.

He said: "The Mayor would certainly regard it as excessive and not in keeping with his desire for frugality."

Despite it being against the GLA rules to claim expenses for entertaining fellow GLA staff or members, Mr Clement claimed £136 buying them lunches and dinners. He also spent £113 on just two cab fares.