In not understanding why Maria Miller is not facing criminal charges?

[NutcrackerFairy]

Apparently 80% of voters believe that MM should be thrown out of the Cabinet and forced to give up her Commons seat as punishment for making false expenses claims [according to a recent poll].

Now if a person in receipt of benefits had fraudulently obtained £45,000 of tax payers money I think they would be facing some sort of criminal proceedings as well as being forced to pay back all that is owed and possibly also being fined. Admittedly they may only be required to pay back a nominal sum per week if on particularly low income but the principle is the same.

And if this was someone else in 'normal' employment who had been caught fiddling their expenses [sometimes by a heck of a lot less than £45,000] they would most likely be escorted off the premises, out of a job and possibly facing criminal charges.

So why is Maria Miller let off the hook, only being asked to pay back a fraction of what she obtained fraudulently, keeping her job and not been charged with fraud?

And why the hell is she able to apparently legitimately claim her mortgage interest anyway? On a property she owns, where her parents live and where she is set to make a tidy £1.2 million pound profit [apparently]. Why the fuck are the taxpayers being asked to fund rich MPs second homes? Why can't they stay in a hotel [like other employees who have to travel for work] and claim the cost of this to expenses?

Is it just the tip of the iceberg as per fraud and MPs expenses? Is MM being protected so not too many questions are asked of other MPs and their expenses claims?

I just think it is gobsmacking and infuriating to see what the ruling classes are up to with tax payers money when massive cuts to services and benefits are taking place.

If there is no money in the pot for these then there is no money for MPs to be claiming their mortgage interest surely

pay the lot back not the tiny amount she has been compelled to

The £45,000 figure came from the Commissioner who tempered it by saying this was the amount overclaimed, "if the Committee agrees with my interpretation of the rules". The Committee, which included one of those involved in making the rules, did not agree with the Commissioner's interpretation and decided that she only overclaimed £5,800. So she has paid the lot back.

the intimidation and arrogance of her office trying to silence the press is a bloody disgrace

It is claimed by some that her office was complaining about her elderly parents being doorstepped. But, putting that to one side, this is why I believe Leveson was wrong. I don't want politicians to have anything to do with regulating the press.

It is every government. Nothing changes.
The European parliament has been nothing but a gravy train since its inception.

Forgot to refresh the page so hopelessly behind everyone else again.

he's not stupid enough to overclaim on publicly published expenses while he is prime minister, obviously

So you are suggesting, without any evidence, that there has been a time when he has overclaimed? Or maybe you are suggesting that he will overclaim in future?

Cameron's total expenses claims for 2013/14 were £7,235.02, by far the lowest figure for any of the leaders of the major parties.

Please add on his free housing, cars etc at the cost of the taxpayer, bedroom Tax not affecting him!

If a benefit claimant is prosecuted for fraudulent claiming they now can receive a 10 year prison sentence and things are being put in place to force sale of their homes to repay. They cannot use an apology or "I forgot" defense, they are judged straight away.

Maria Miller is no different in fact IMO she is worse, she should be brought to book as everyone else is.

Yanbu. She is a criminal. Why is she not treated like one?

There you go

you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/maria-miller-to-face-criminal-proceedings?source=twitter-share-button

Yanbu, it's disgusting. Double standards and all that.

She should definitely not be in this job.

prh - Cameron is (mis)using his position to make the rich even richer and the poor even poorer. He is very high up in the former group. He is very very anti people unnecessarily claiming benefits, yet he himself claimed disability benefits for his son. Not illegal, obviously, but a great example of grabbing every penny you can, however little you need it.

Personally, I think those who live too far to travel into work should be housed in dorms as if they were at boarding school. Oh, OK, let them have separate small suites. They wouldn't spend much time in them anyway, as they have so many lunches, dinners, receptions etc to go to. Enough room to relax in front of the tv when they get back for the night, and a big enough bed for shagging in. That'll do it.

I've come to the conclusion that Cameron is a very, very bad judge of character. He seems to persist in keeping dodgy people close to him despite warnings from his peers.

Andy Coulson anyone?

It wouldn't be hard to negotiate a deal with local hotels. They would love to be known for housing the MPs, I should think. Constituents could storm the hotel bar and tell their MP to fuck off. Direct bill, no reimbursement.

YANBU.

Listening to press review last night and the kicker for me is the fact that the house was bought years beforehand at a lower amount than the mortgage was claimed for when the home was deemed her 'second home'. She claimed for the mortgage interest for 4 years as her 2nd home and at the point she was asked to sign the document confirming she'll pay CGT on the sale of the home, suddenly it's no longer her 2nd home but her main family residence. The whole thing stinks.

And, the house is 15 min closer to Parliament than Basingstoke. What the fuck?

www.change.org/petitions/maria-miller-mp-resign-as-basingstoke-mp-and-culture-secretary

www.change.org/petitions/maria-miller-mp-either-pay-back-45-000-in-fraudulent-expense-claims-or-resign

Cameron is no doubt a bad judge of character. But let's be fair to him, he's not aiming at giving his top jobs to ethical people. He's aiming at giving his top jobs to people who support his unethical agenda of taking from the poor and giving to the rich. He's doing very well on that front. If he gave 2 hoots about ethics, for starters he would not be bringing in all those people friendly (not) policies, and for seconds he would be sacking his ministers and special advisors once it was brought to his attention that they were dodgy.

Oh wow nochips - I'd missed the fact that she'd only repaid a small % of it back .

Did any of you see the news story last week (may have been local news, but there was a small thread on here about it too) where a young woman had £52,000 deposited into her bank account by accident by Lichfield District Council? She was prosecuted because she spent some (£9k) of the money & did not make an attempt to return it until questioned. OK, she made a mistake but, to me, there is FAR less criminal intent in her actions than someone making fraudulent claims completely knowing them to be so! Both large sums of public money, two very different scenarios & only one prosecution! Mind boggling .

YANBU
Apart from any criminal proceedings, her actions sound like gross misconduct to me which in most businesses would result in instant dismissal

Santa - I have no sympathy for MM, but your example is straight stealing. Not just a mistake to spend £9K (intending to spend all £52K) of what you know to be somebody else's money!

Feel angry about this too

I have signed two of the petitions - I'm not signing the "Either pay back £45,000 or resign" one though as I don't think it should be an 'either or' situation.

Maybe I didn't make my point all that well Dinosaurs. Yes, BOTH are stealing - what I intended to mean was that (in the LDC case) the stealing was the mistake made. It still has less criminal intent (in my opinion) than someone committing fraud to obtain the money in the first place and then keeping it too.

The point really is that if one can be prosecuted, then how can the other not be?

Love this!

fordingtonfield.wordpress.com/2014/03/29/the-maria-millers-tale-still-being-told-a-tale-of-a-chancer/

This greedy woman is a liar and a thief.
Quite why taxpayers were effectively having to pay her parents housing costs escapes me.

These people set the rules and police themselves.
They are morally bankrupt career politicians simply in the job for their own end. They show their contempt for the people they are supposed to serve in their arrogance when anyone dares to challenge them.

Doubt Labour will do much - they have too many doing exactly the same.
.

Just another sorry saga from this rotten lot of MPs, who would have us believe we are all in this together. It really gets my goat that she is being shielded like this.