Hi °C | Lo °C A FORMER Tory peer who was jailed over the parliamentary expenses scandal has won £3,500 damages from Essex Police.
Lord Hanningfield, 72, sued for compensation over events in September 2011 - days after his release from prison on a tag after serving nine weeks of a nine-month sentence for false accounting.
The police, who denied that his arrest, detention and the search of his home near Chelmsford were unlawful, were conducting an investigation into expenses from when the peer was leader of Essex County Council.
It was later discontinued without any charges being brought.
Lord Hanningfield, who was not at London's High Court for today's ruling, claimed officers did not have reasonable grounds for believing that his arrest was "necessary" within the terms of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984.
Mr Justice Eady concluded that the requirement of "necessity" as laid down by Parliament had not, on any realistic interpretation of the word, been met.
The judge said that, in the light of his findings, the amount of damages had been agreed.
