Ex-speaker Peter Slipper appeals conviction over Cabcharge misuse
Former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper has lodged an appeal against his conviction for misusing his parliamentary entitlements in the form of Cabcharge vouchers.
In July, Slipper was found guilty in the ACT Magistrates Court of three dishonesty charges over his misuse of Cabcharge.
The court heard he used his allowance to visit wineries in 2010 before he was appointed speaker, and that the total bill for the three trips was believed to be just more than $900.
The court found Slipper had acted dishonestly and misrepresented where he had been on the trips.
Slipper is due to be sentenced later this month on three counts of causing a risk of loss to the Commonwealth, and those proceedings are expected to go ahead unless there is an application for a stay on proceedings.
As the matter was prosecuted summarily in the ACT Magistrates Court, the maximum penalty the court could impose was 12 months imprisonment or a fine of $6,600, or both, for each offence.
Slipper resigned as speaker in October 2012.
He lost the Queensland seat of Fisher in the 2013 election when he ran as an independent, after splitting with Coalition colleagues and accepting Labor's offer to be Speaker in the House of Representatives.
He had held the seat on and off since 1984, first for the National Party and later for the Liberal National Party.
