PRESS ASSOCIATION -- A council has suspended payments to a disgraced Conservative peer who was jailed for fiddling his expenses.
Former Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield is currently serving a nine-month prison sentence after being convicted of falsely claiming £14,000.
His claims included payments for overnight stays in London when he was not in the capital - including one occasion when he was on a flight to India.
Despite his conviction in May, he has until now continued claiming his £11,500-a-year council allowance.
Ordinarily the prison sentence would disqualify the 70-year-old, real name Paul White, from claiming his allowance. But because he is appealing against his conviction that disqualification had been put on hold.
Councillors have now voted to change council rules and his allowance has been suspended until the outcome of his appeal, a spokesman said. The peer was convicted of six counts of false accounting.
The former pig farmer, from West Hanningfield, near Chelmsford, told his trial at Chelmsford Crown Court that he treated the Lords expenses for staying overnight in London as an allowance for living outside the capital.
He alleged that most other peers treated the House of Lords as a "club", turning up for only 10 minutes to claim their daily allowance.
He also faces an investigation by parliamentary authorities into his expenses claims but Commissioner for Standards Paul Kernaghan has suspended this until the appeal is concluded.