The former leader of Essex County Council Lord Hanningfield has reportedly used his chicken as an excuse behind his latest "clock in, clock out scam".
The Daily Mirror claims the 73-year-old, of West Hanningfield, told a Privileges and Conduct Committee he needed his daily House of Lords attendance allowance to hire a man to tend to his poultry while in Westminster.
It also claims watchdogs will "throw the book at him" at a final committee meeting next week, where he is expected to repay £3,300 for the 11 times a Mirror reporter saw him clocking in and out for periods of less than 40 minutes in the House.
Confronted by the national paper, he is reported to have said: "I don't have any money when I have paid for looking after my dog, cleaning my house, electricity, food. I have to live don't I? I'm a working peer."
The Daily Mirror covertly filmed Lord Hanningfield journeying into the House of Lords to clock in and out, and collect the £300 attendance allowance, for 19 days in July 2013
The longest stay was more than five hours.
Over the 19 days, he clocked up £5,700 in attendance allowances and £470 in travel costs.
But the peer, who had the Tory whip removed from him in 2010 over the parliamentary expenses scandal, said he must clock in to get paid for his work.
He told the Chronicle in December: "It's a storm in a teacup – I haven't broken any rules, I haven't done anything wrong."
Now the Daily Mirror has splashed the lord's picture, real name Paul White, on its Saturday (May 3) front page ahead of the final committee meeting this week.
Lord Hanningfield served nine weeks of a nine-month sentence in 2011 for falsely claiming £14,000 in parliamentary expenses.
