A Conservative MP is to appear in court after being charged with making false claims for parliamentary expenses.
The Crown Prosecution Service in England and Wales said Christopher Davies, the MP for Brecon and Radnor, is accused of two counts of making a false instrument and one of providing false or misleading information in relation to allowance claims.
He will appear at Westminster Magistrates' Court on March 22.
In a statement, the CPS said it had received a file of evidence from the Metropolitan Police relating to allegations that Mr Davies falsified two invoices in support of parliamentary expenses claims.
A spokesman said: "Following a review of the evidence, the CPS has today charged Mr Davies with two offences of making a false instrument and one offence of providing false or misleading information for allowance claims.
"The Crown Prosecution Service reminds all concerned that criminal proceedings against Mr Davies are now active and that he has a right to a fair trial.
"It is extremely important that there should be no reporting, commentary or sharing of information online which could in any way prejudice these proceedings."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here