Mark Hendrick paid back £7,000 after claiming for loan on two homes

Mark Hendrick would not give the Telgraph mortgage statements to support his claims for interest.

Mr Hendrick, MP for Preston, yesterday admitted that he had been claiming on a mortgage that covered both his constituency “second home” and his main residence in London, in breach of the rules.

When questioned about his mortgage interest claims earlier this week by The Daily Telegraph Mr Hendrick denied any wrongdoing in relation to his mortgage claims, although he did admit “estimating” his claims.

But on Thursday he disclosed he had had to repay £6,850.52 to the fees office after over-claiming on his second home allowance.

After the improper claims were noticed by the fees office and the money repaid in 2008, Mr Hendrick submitted similar claims the following year, and was again paid in full for the mortgage interest for both properties. It has been reported that he has agreed to repay a further £949.17 when he returns to Westminster next week.

His claims first aroused suspicion when it was noticed that he claimed regularly for varying amounts. He said that this was because he “estimated” his claims because his mortgage included a capital repayment element that he found difficult to separate out.

At the end of the year, he said, he worked out the correct figure and informed the fees office accordingly. Files seen by The Daily Telegraph show no such settlements were recorded, with the exception of a sum of £1,344.54 in January 2008, which he said was for “unclaimed mortgage”.

Mr Hendrick refused this newspaper’s request to provide mortgage statements to support his claims for between £900 and £1,015 a month on the north London flat he had initially designated as his second home, before “flipping” to his house in Preston.

In 2007, Mr Hendrick paid off the mortgage on the London flat, but transferred the loan to the mortgage on his Preston house, and began charging the taxpayer up to £1,469 a month for the interest on the full debt.

In a statement to his local newspaper, Mr Hendrick said he wrote to the fees office last July to “seek clarification”.

He was told that he had been overpaid, and agreed to pay the money back, but went on to make similar claims for this year.