A backbench Labour MP claimed for bath mats, gardening equipment and more than £7,000 of property repairs on his office expenses.
Roger Godsiff was already claiming his maximum second home allowance to cover the interest on a large mortgage for his home in London when he made dozens of claims for 'office sundries' on his office expenses.
Receipts suggest the purchases were in fact for household items including a lawnmower, hedge trimmer, cushion covers and bath mats.
He also used office expenses for extensive roofing work, rewiring, replacement guttering and even clock repair at a property he owns in his Birmingham constituency.
The former bank clerk used the maximum Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) in the four years between 2004/5 and 2007/8 by claiming around £1,900 a month for the mortgage interest and around £400 a month for a secured loan on his detached house in Lewisham, south-east London, which he designated his second home.
The total monthly claims of around £2,300 were so large that the maximum ACA was not enough to cover all his annual repayments.
In total Mr Godsiff claimed £86,919 over four years in second home costs for the house which is in the area in which he grew up and began his political career and where his wife and family are listed on the electoral roll.
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