Expenses scandal: Relative left angered by Peer's false claim to live at his home

Robert Taylor, half-nephew of Lord Taylor of Warwick, told a jury at Southwark Crown Court: "I was shocked, I was quite angry, actually, because I had always wondered why he had been quite so friendly, because we didn't on the face of it have a lot in common."

He added: "At the point where we were being doorstepped by the media, I suddenly realised that maybe his wasn't actually a real friendship at all."

The court has heard that the peer submitted forms saying his main residence was in Oxford, where his half-nephew lived, when Lord Taylor actually lived in Ealing, west London.

He claimed for travelling expenses between the two cities and for night subsistence to cover being in London.

The prosecution says the peer has agreed that he never stayed at the address in Oxford and had no legal or financial interest in it.

Lord Taylor is on trial facing six counts of false accounting, relating to claims he made as a member of the House of Lords under the members' reimbursement allowance scheme, between March 2006 and October 2007.

Mr Taylor, a professional photographer, said he has lived for eight years at the house in Oxford which is owned by his partner Dr Tristram Wyatt.

He said contact with Lord Taylor had been "sporadic".

Asked what he would have said if Lord Taylor had asked if he could use his address as his main place of residence, he said: "I would say, 'no –why?'

Dr Wyatt, asked his reaction when he heard that Lord Taylor had used the house as his main place of residence, said: "Great surprise."

Asked why, he said: "Because he didn't live there."

The prosecution claims that Lord Taylor, 58, of Lynwood Road, Ealing, lied on the forms to get the expenses.

Mohammed Khamisa QC, defending, has said that Lord Taylor was told his claims were "acceptable" because members did not receive a salary.

He has told the jury: "You will hear that others with whom he worked, other peers he spoke to, had all told him that what he was doing was acceptable."

A senior Westminster administrator, Michael Pownall, the Clerk of the Parliaments since November 2007, agreed with a suggestion by Mr Khamisa that the scheme was "lightly policed".

But he denied suggestions that it was a "surrogate wage".

The trial continues today.