POLICE
today dropped their long-running investigation into Lord Hanningfield's county
council expenses.
The former leader of Essex County Council was
jailed for nine months in July last year for cheating the taxpayer out of
nearly £14,000, but released after just nine weeks behind bars.
Lord Hanningfield, real name Paul White, had claimed expenses for overnight stays in
London when he had in fact been chauffeured back to his home in West
Hanningfield, in his county council funded car.
But today City of London Police, who launched
their investigation into his County Council expenses shortly after he was found
guilty of fiddling his Parliamentary expenses, said they had dropped the case.
A spokesman said: "Allegations of unauthorised
expenditure against a 71-year-old man from Essex, originally made to Essex
Police by Essex County Council, have been fully investigated by the City of London Police Economic Crime Directorate,
after being referred to them in December 2011.
"Following a full review of the evidence obtained from this investigation and consultation with the CPS, a decision has been made to take no further action regarding these allegations as there is insufficient evidence to justify any criminal charges in this case. The police investigation into this matter is now closed."
Council leader Peter Martin said: "We are glad that the Police investigation into Lord Hanningfield's Essex County Council corporate credit card is over and we are now able to move on. He was obviously a large part of the authority for a number of years, but it is three years since he stepped down as Leader and a lot has changed since then. We will now be making the information we have available to the public to view on the council's website."