FORMER Brecon and Radnorshire MP Chris Davies has given evidence at an employment tribunal brought by his former office manager.

Sarah Lewis claims she was bullied and forced from her post in Mr Davies’ Brecon office after blowing the whistle on the faked invoices that eventually cost the Conservative MP his seat.

Under cross examination from barrister Nathaniel Caiden, representing Ms Lewis, the former MP repeatedly denied being aware of a problem with the false invoices he’d created, to replace an original invoice for £700 photographs for his Builth Wells office, and of wanting to dismiss Ms Lewis.

She resigned from Mr Davies employment in April 2018 having been off on sick leave from her part time post since January of that year and told Mr Davies she was aware of "fraudulent invoices" he had created.

When Ms Lewis emailed Mr Davies to inform him she would be taking sick leave she said she had been unsettled by a newspaper report that an office manager of a Welsh Labour MP was facing a trial related to an expenses claim submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA).

In her email Ms Lewis wrote: "As you know I’m fully aware of you financial impropriety regarding the fraudulent invoices you created and the fact that you tried to get me to submit one of those invoices."

Mr Davies said he didn’t understand what Ms Lewis meant by "financial impropriety" and wasn’t aware of which invoices she was referring to.

He said he only became aware of the a problem with the invoices when he received a letter from an official at Conservative Central Office in February 2018 which outlined complaints made by Ms Lewis including the references to the invoices Mr Davies had created to split the £700 photo bill, which he was entitled to claim for, between two expense accounts.

He told the tribunal: "I didn’t know what she was referring to at that time. They (the invoices) were produced in 2016, they had been in the public domain for two years, and she (Ms Lewis) had never mentioned them to me for two years."

The tribunal had already been told that Ms Lewis had reported her complaints and concerns over the invoices she discovered in April 2016 to a Conservative Party hotline in autumn 2017.

Ms Lewis had told the tribunal she had queried the invoices for £450 and £250, which turned out to be in place of the original £700 invoice, after discovering them in April 2016 with Mr Davies office in Builth Wells and at that time thought the matter was being dealt with.

Mr Davies had said he had stapled the invoice he had created to the original and kept all the copies and submitted them as part of his accounts to IPSA.

Mr Davies had submitted the £450 invoice himself but the £250 invoice was never submitted as Ms Lewis had refused to do so.

He told Mr Caiden he wasn’t aware the £250 invoice hadn’t been submitted and said he was busy with his job and travelling to see his father at a hospice in Swansea at the time so had never checked to see if the amount had been reimbursed to his bank account.

He told Mr Caiden: "I had no time to look through my accounts to see if £250 had been paid, I had full trust in Ms Lewis to deal with my accounts.

"I certainly wouldn’t have wanted to lose £250. Ms Lewis was brought in to sort a mess in my accounts. I had full trust in Ms Lewis, that’s what I paid her to do.

"Don’t you think I would have queried it if I had known?"

Mr Caiden replied: "The reason you wouldn’t query it was you knew you did something wrong and had been caught."

Mr Davies had also been questioned about meeting he’d held with Ms Lewis 2017 when he told her he intended to reduce her hours from 18 to 10 a week and letters sent to arrange her return to work from sick leave.

The former MP said when he had reduced Ms Lewis hours he gave her a pay rise and increased her holiday entitlement, which he said showed he wasn’t unhappy with her work. The pay increase was described by Mr Caiden as a cost of living increase and he said her hours had been reduced.

Mr Davies said he was also concerned about the amount of personal letters Ms Lewis had produced on the office computer, which was paid for by him as the MP, and work she carried out on it for the Brecon and Radnor Conservative Association and in her roles at a town and county councillor and the chamber of trade.

He said he had a duty to question those issues and said he could have been subject to headlines suggesting he was using public funds to buy votes. Mr Caiden suggested Mr Davies had made up his mind he intended to dismiss Ms Lewis but he denied this.

Wendy Poulton, who worked as a part time case worker at the Builth office, told the hearing she had no recollection of a phone call in April 2016 but said as she has also has a farm she was tired at the end of the lambing season.

Mr Davies also described his decision to create the false invoices as a "catastrophic mistake". It led to a criminal conviction under the Parliamentary Standards Act, in March this year, and him being fined £1,500 and ordered to carry out 50 hours unpaid work, and losing his Parliamentary seat due to a recall petition. Though he was selected as the Conservative candidate at August’s by-election he was defeated by Liberal Democrat Jane Dodds who hold a 1,425 majority.

He said: "I made a foolish error and I have paid heavily for it. I made it and I don’t blame anyone else."

Closing submissions are due to be made at the tribunal on Thursday.