Scandal-hit MP Simon Danczuk was yesterday told to repay a record £11,583 which he wrongly claimed for his taxpayer-funded London home.
The Rochdale MP made claims for housing allowance for his two children from his first marriage. But the Commons expenses watchdog found that they were not “routinely resident” with him in the capital during a period of more than three years from 2012-13 to 2015-16.   The £11,583 is believed to be the largest sum that the body has demanded an MP repay since its 2010 launch.
Danczuk, 49, said yesterday: “I hold my hands up and admit that this was an error on my part.”
The MP  - currently suspended from the Labour parliamentary party after allegedly exchanging explicit messages with a 17-year-old girl - was also told by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority’s compliance officer to pay back £96.50 in parking charges.
Danczuk, now understood to live in a two-bedroom flat in Pimlico, has rented two other London properties since becoming an MP in 2010.
Two children from his first marriage to Sonia Rossington are teenagers. Two from his second marriage to Karen Danczuk are younger. He is divorced from both women.
His daughter from his first marriage has never stayed with him in London, according to the provisional findings by IPSA’s compliance officer Peter Davis. Danczuk’s son from his first marriage stayed one night after contacting his father in February 2012.
The MP registered his two oldest children in April 2012 to qualify for additional accommodation funding. He had done so for his two youngest in 2010. But the rules, updated in 2012, say extra children allowance is for dependants “routinely residing” at the rented accommodation.
On the parking charges issue, Danczuk had left his car at Manchester railway station while he was on holiday after a parliamentary trip last summer.
The fact that he was on holiday for part of this period was confirmed by him tweeting: “View from my Spanish gaff this morning.”
Danczuk, who agreed to repay the additional housing allowance claimed, insisted that at the time registration of his two older children was initiated he was seeing them regularly and expected this to continue.
But after applying for registration his relationship with his first wife “deteriorated rapidly, compromising his ability to maintain contact with his older children”, said the report.
He argued that his older children were still dependent as he continued to pay child support.
But Rossington told Davis she believed there was no relationship between the older children and their father since 2009 and “definitely not” in the period he claimed the budget uplift for them to stay in London.
However, his second wife Karen, who shot to fame with racy selfie pictures on social media, said she thought Danczuk kept regular contact with the children from his first marriage possibly until 2013.
The report found: “The evidence points overwhelmingly to the conclusion that the MP obtained an increase to his accommodation expenditure budget by claiming dependent uplifts for his two oldest children for a period of over three years, when at no point were either of the children routinely resident. The compliance officer must conclude this was done knowing there was no reasonable prospect of the children staying.”