A LEADING Wyre Forest district and Worcestershire county councillor has had to repay expenses after it was revealed he put in duplicate claims on eight separate occasions.

Conservative, Stephen Clee, the county council’s cabinet member for corporate services and the district council’s cabinet member for planning and economic regeneration, repaid almost £100 in travel expenses following an in-house investigation earlier this year.

Details of his “potentially duplicated and/or overlapping” claims were released by the county council following a Freedom of Information request.

The matter has already been referred to the county council’s standards committee, which deals with complaints about councillors. Following a private hearing, however, it decided not to pursue disciplinary action.

The repayments are believed to relate to occasions when Mr Clee took trips on county council business and then claimed expenses from both authorities.

Mr Clee said in a statement: “The system used by the council when it comes to allowance claims is very rigorous and I totally support this.

“In proof this system works, it was pointed out to me there were errors in a very small percentage of claims I made.

“These were genuine mistakes on my part and as soon as this was pointed out to me by officers, I paid back the amounts in question – which totalled £94.80 – straight away.”

It was revealed in February that a cabinet member was under investigation over their expenses by County Hall’s then-opposition Leader, John Buckley.

Full copies of Mr Clee’s travel expenses for the 2008-09 financial year also reveal he claimed £264 for a trip to London to discuss pension funds in April, 2008.

This included a hotel, parking fees and 352-mile mileage claim at 39.5p per mile. His other trips to London involved 290-mile claims and did not require hotels.

His expenses also show that a £30.70 claim to see a concert at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and a £12.64 claim for a trip to the Three Counties Show in Malvern, were both struck out.

He did, however, receive £71.10 for a 180-mile claim following a tour of the Worcestershire Hub service centres at Worcester, Redditch, Kidderminster, Evesham and Malvern in a day – although a circuit of the five locations starting and finishing at his Bewdley home can be completed in 87 miles.

Simon Mallinson, the county council’s head of legal services, said: “Thorough and robust procedures are in place to verify expenses claims, to ensure public money is spent correctly.

“These procedures were audited this year and were found to be sound.”