Lib Dems should apologise for expenses discrepancies, say Plaid

The Liberal Democrats should apologise over expenses discrepancies in the only Welsh seat the party won in the general election, Plaid Cymru have said.

The UK Lib Dems have been fined £20,000 by the Electoral Commission for failing to declare all their campaign spending.

The commission found items of expenditure in Ceredigion that appeared to have been attributed to the UK party by local candidate Mark Williams.

The spending could not be located on the UK party's return.

Parties face national and local campaign spending limits and have to provide expenditure details.

The commission said: "There is no suggestion that the data reported by the candidate and agent within each candidate return was wrong."

The Lib Dems said "human error and failures of process" were to blame.

But Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas, who lost the seat to Mr Williams in 2005, said: "The Liberal Democrats in Ceredigion should apologise to voters for misleading them over their expenditure.

"I hope the police will now investigate following the recommendation of the Electoral Commission."

Bob Posner, director of political finance at the Electoral Commission, said their investigation uncovered "systemic failures in ensuring that the rules were being followed".

"This is an experienced party that failed to meet the basic requirements of the law, and cases like this undermine voters' confidence in our political finance system," he said.

"This is why we have applied the highest financial penalty available to us."

The commission said it had notified the Metropolitan Police that the campaigns officer, Tim Gordon, the party's chief executive, may have committed a criminal offence if he "knowingly or recklessly signed a false declaration" about the spending.

A Liberal Democrat spokesman said the mistakes had been caused by issues with a small number of local accounting units.

He said steps were being taken to ensure these mistakes were not repeated, and the party would co-operate fully with any investigation.