A former New Zealand dentist, Sir Paul Beresford, has been
caught up in the scandal at Westminister over expenses
claims.
Sir Paul, a
Conservative MP in the British parliament, was born in Levin
and started his dentistry practice in New Zealand.
He designated his west London property, which includes his
surgery, as his second home on his parliamentary allowances,
the Telegraph newspaper reported.
Sir Paul, who was named last year as the 34th "most
influential" dentist in Britain, cut a deal with the House of
Commons fees office that allowed him to put three quarters of
the running costs of the property on the UK taxpayers.
The MP for Mole Valley in Surrey, who served as an
environment minister under John Major for three years while
retaining his successful dental practice, claimed that the
arrangement was cheaper for the taxpayer.
Before his election to Parliament in 1992, the property --
two floors of a Georgian town house above a hairdressing
salon in Putney, south-west London -- was registered with the
local council as 50 percent residential and 50 percent
business.
He had set up two surgeries in the flat, which were served by
three dentists. On becoming an MP, Sir Paul decided to reduce
his practice and work part-time, and charged three-quarters
of the costs of the flat to taxpayers.
This included mortgage interest payments of £350 ($NZ917) a
month, ground rent and other bills.
Sir Paul said that, at this stage, he had only one surgery
and that the patient waiting room doubled as his private
lounge in the evenings.
He decided to increase his practice in 2007 and took on a
larger share of the running costs, putting 50 percent on the
taxpayer.
Last year, he began to convert the surgery back to its
original state and stopped claiming second home allowances
altogether and said he would not claim again in future.
Sir Paul told the Telegraph his expenses claims on his second
home were among the lowest in the Commons, adding that he had
suffered financially as a result of cutting back his surgery
hours and by not claiming for a separate second home.
"In effect, so as to reduce the cost to the taxpayer, I have
lost private income," he said. "The taxpayer is not
subsidising my practice."
The New Zealander is married with four children, and was
knighted in 1990 for his services to inner-city
rehabilitation. He led the Wandsworth council in south London
in the 1980s in outsourcing work done by council staff to
private contractors, a novel concept at the time.
His salary as a backbench Conservative MP is £64,766
($NZ169,766) and his second home claims were £9154 (2005),
£7694 (2006), £5328 (2007) and £3521 (2008).
