THE former officer manager of ex MP Chris Davies has claimed she was "bullied" by him and "ostracised" by her colleagues.

Sarah Lewis is seeking damages at an employment tribunal claiming she was forced from her job as office manager at the Brecon and Radnorshire Conservative Association offices in Brecon in 2018 after blowing the whistle on faked expenses claims that eventually cost the Tory MP his seat.

Ms Lewis was challenged over what action she had taken after it was discovered Mr Davies, who was entitled to claim back the £700 costs of photographs he ordered for his Builth Wells constituency office. He had created two false invoices, without the photographer’s knowledge, to split the cost between two expense accounts.

Ms Lewis said when she discovered the invoices hadn’t been created by the photographer she refused to submit them to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) as she knew she would have to declare they were correct.

She said she had contacted a case worker in the then MP’s Builth office after the invoices came to light in April 2016.

But Ms Lewis hadn’t reported the faked invoices to the Conservative Party until autumn 2017. The party then informed IPSA and a police investigation was launched which led to Mr Davies’ prosecution under the Parliamentary Standards Act.

Ms Lewis said: "I certainly knew they were falsified invoices there was no way I would submit them to IPSA."

Irvine Mccabe, barrister for Mr Davies, asked: "You knew it was dodgy but you didn’t take it up with your employer, you didn’t report it to IPSA?"

Ms Lewis replied: "Because I was told the matter was dealt with."

Mr Mccabe said: "I put it to you, you didn’t think there was anything untoward and Mr Davies had spoken to the photographer."

Asked why it had taken almost two years for Ms Lewis to make a report to the Conservative Party she said the office had been busy with the Welsh Assembly election in 2016, the EU referendum and preparing for the 2017 council elections.

She said she had also been shocked to see a newspaper report that the office manager of a Welsh Labour MP had been brought to court in relation to an IPSA issue.

"Back then I was shocked someone had taken so much time to create a false invoice. I didn’t really realise the big implications at that time, I thought it may have been a slap on the wrist. When I saw the office manager had been sent to trial over an IPSA issue it really brought it home to me if I had submitted a false invoice I could have been implicated."

Ms Lewis also said she felt ostracised by staff members who worked in Mr Davies Builth Wells office following the discovery of the invoices.

Ms Lewis was also questioned about her duties and meetings Mr Davies had organised with her to discuss issues after she had been overpaid, following a reduction in her hours, which she repaid and a return to work while she was on long term sick leave with stress. Mr Mccabe said those were proper matters for Mr Davies to raise as her employer and said a "reasonable" person wouldn’t have taken the letter as Ms Lewis had who claimed after receiving it there was "no way I could go back to work for him".

During evidence Ms Lewis also clarified that an incident where she claimed Mr Davies had "banged his fist on a filing cabinet" and said the he thought the "whole point of becoming an MP was to get rich" had happened in autumn 2015, after she informed him he needed to repay £4,000 in expenses.

Her witness, Welsh Conservative official Jane Pratt, had told the hearing’s opening day Mr Davies had stood in a doorway and stopped her leaving. Ms Lewis said the time Mr Davies had stood in the doorway was in October 2017.

Mr Mccabe said the incident is disputed by Mr Davies.

The hearing will continue later this week.