Disgraced ex-Tory MP Charlie Elphicke claiming universal credit after jail term for sexual assault

Elphicke, who always voted for reducing benefits, said he is now in an ‘embarrassed position’

Charlie Elphicke is unable to pay a £35,000 fine (PA)

Disgraced former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke has said he is unemployed and making a universal credit claim.

He was summoned to Uxbridge magistrates’ court over his failure to pay £35,000 after his jail sentence for sexually assaulting two women.

The ex-Dover MP – who was released half-way through his sentence earlier this year and is on licence until next year – said in court on Friday that he has found himself in a “very difficult and embarrassed position”.

He was jailed for two years in September 2020 after being found guilty of three counts of sexual assault following a month-long trial.

Sentencing judge Mrs Justice Whipple ordered the former government whip to pay £35,000 within a year towards the costs of the prosecution, which would “otherwise fall on the public purse”.

“You have substantial equity in your family home, which is currently up for sale,” she told him.

The court heard Elphicke received £51,000 from the sale of his marital home, but most of the money has been used on legal fees and to pay rent on a one-bedroom flat in Fulham, southwest London.

Elphicke added: “That is why I have very limited cash to meet my living expenses.”

He continued: “I have made a claim for universal credit that is currently being processed. They are going to come back to me on 12 December to make sure I can pay the rent in an ongoing way.”

His barrister Ian Winter QC had told the court that his client had “a fair bit of debt”.

Elphicke told the court he had worked with the Step Change debt charity to assess his financial situation but that their £1-a-month repayment proposal was rejected by the court.

He said: “I have no job, I have no career, I am long-term unemployed.

“I am working with the job centre and my probation officer to find a new career.

“I have made a claim for universal credit. I am separated from my wife who has filed for divorce. I have had to find a new place to live.”

Elphicke’s estranged wife, Natalie Elphicke, who succeeded him as MP for Dover, lent him £100,000 to pay legal bills.

Magistrates agreed to adjourn the case to 17 December, while Elphicke is waiting for his benefits claim to be assessed, with a payment order expected to be made at the next hearing.

During his time as an MP, Elphicke always voted for cutting benefits, and against spending to boost prospects of long-term unemployed people.

In March, Elphicke lost a Court of Appeal challenge against his prison term after his lawyers argued that it was too long and that it should have been a suspended sentence.

The sentencing judge described Elphicke as a “sexual predator” who used his “success and respectability as a cover” and told a “pack of lies”.

During his trial, jurors heard how he had asked one of his victims about bondage and sex, then kissed her and groped her breast before chasing her around his home, chanting: “I’m a naughty Tory.”

In the wake of the case, the Commons Standards Committee found five Conservatives, including his wife, had breached the code of conduct over an “egregious” attempt to influence his legal proceedings.

As a result his wife, Sir Roger Gale and Theresa Villiers were suspended from the House of Commons for a day.

They, along with Bob Stewart and Adam Holloway, had written to senior members of the judiciary raising concerns that a more junior judge was considering publishing character references provided for Elphicke.