Conservative Party fined £70,000 over election expenses.
The party insists its failure to report six figure sums it spent on
trying to win three by-elections and the general election was an "administrative
error".
The Electoral Commission said there was a "realistic prospect" the money
had given the party an advantage.
The Metropolitan Police is now looking at the evidence to see if the
reporting omissions were deliberate.
The party broke spending rules by moving campaigners and staff from its
national headquarters to boost local party efforts and not properly declaring
their hotel bills and expenses.
- The Conservative Party's 2015 UK Parliamentary general election spending return was missing payments worth at least £104,765
- Separately, payments worth up to £118,124 were either not reported to the commission or were incorrectly reported by the party
- The party did not include the required invoices or receipts for 81 payments to the value of £52,924
- The party failed to maintain records explaining the amounts it invoiced to candidates in three 2014 by-elections, for work on their campaigns
The successful Conservative campaign in South Thanet to see off a
challenge by then UKIP leader Nigel Farage at the 2015 general election was
among those criticised in the commission's report.
The Conservative Party also failed to correctly report all expenditure on
a national battlebus campaign, which helped David Cameron win a majority at the
general election, the watchdog found.
It has referred a possible criminal offence - of whether Simon Day, the
Conservative Party's registered treasurer until April 2016, "knowingly or
recklessly made a false declaration" - to the Metropolitan Police.
Labour and the Lib Dems have previously been fined for breaking election
spending rules prompting the Electoral Commission to warn that "there is a risk
that some political parties might come to view the payment of these fines as a
cost of doing business".
In a statement, the Conservative Party said "there needs to be a review
of how the Electoral Commission's processes and requirements could be clarified
or improved". BBC News.
