A former Labour MEP claimed £200 a month in expenses for renting an office in his own house, a court heard.

Peter Skinner, 56, from Snodland, improperly used his Parliamentary Assistance Allowance (PAA) to pay for hotels, restaurants, shops, clothes and jewellery, jurors have heard.

Skinner allegedly misused his PAA to fund trips to the US, hire diving equipment in Hawaii, fund gourmet meals in Texas, pay his ex-wife £10,000 and fix the gearbox on her Land Rover Discovery.

He also forged his father's signature on a document so he could claim his dad William 'Jim' Skinner was working for him and send his parents £5,000 every three months, it is said.

Skinner claimed that his bookkeeper had made the payments from his PAA without him knowing.

Southwark Crown Court also heard how Karen Forbes - Skinner's former bookkeeper - was paid £1,500 from the account after she had stopped working for him as a 'loyalty payment'.

Skinner highlighted a document to the jury, which showed an account of the expenses he believed he was rightfully owed at the end of 2006.

From these figures he concluded that £10,176.81 should be paid to him and £7,250 should be paid directly to his ex-wife Julie Skinner.

"Of course, it did not cost you anything - this was tax payers money," - Jonathan Davies, prosecuting

Skinner, of Recreation Avenue, claimed that the reason for sending funds directly to Mrs Skinner was because the two women were not speaking and he felt that this "cut out the middle man" and that he was legally able to do so.

Jonathan Davies, prosecuting, highlighted the headline 'rent' which featured on Skinner's spreadsheet and asked the former MEP what the rent was for.

Skinner answered: "It was rent for an office in my house."

He added that he believed he was entitled to claim this back on expenses according to his understanding of the rules of the European Parliament.

Other items on the spreadsheet included costs for utility bills, wi-fi and a cost for meals of £300 per month.

The court had earlier heard that Skinner's first wife had become the owner of a Land Rover originally bought using his general expenses (GEA) following their divorce.

Skinner explained that he had not bought another car and that the fuel expenses that appeared on the spreadsheet were in relation to hire cars.

Mr Davies asked why payments had been paid to Mrs Skinner from the PAA account despite Skinner's claims that he had told Mrs Forbes not to make any further payments to his ex-wife from that account.

Skinner said: "These amounts were, although they were coming from PAA, actually due to my expenses."

The former MEP was asked if there was any reason that his GEA could not have been used to make those payments but he could not think of any.

Mr Davies told the court that at that time there was approximately £23,000 in Skinner's GEA account which could have been used.

Skinner conceded that he believed some of the payments made from PAA had nothing to do with his mandate.

When asked about why Mrs Forbes would have sent Mrs Skinner thousands of pounds Skinner said: "I am sure she would have made the payments of what she thought was allowable.

"I do not think she should have used the PAA account for some of those payments whatsoever - she had the discretion to make those decisions."

He denied the assertion that he had told Mrs Forbes to make the payments to himself and his ex-wife directly from PAA.

"That's a decision Karen Forbes took, not me," Skinner added.

"She had put a lot of effort into her work - therefore it was an honest payoff for her," - Peter Skinner

He asserted that the money to be paid was money he was owed in regard to his expenses.

Between 2004 and 2007 Skinner claimed the maximum amount of PAA available which totaled around £480,000.

He allegedly used £1,900 of these expenses to pay his ex-wife to repair the gearbox of her Land Rover Discovery.

Skinner described himself as diligent and a hard-working MEP throughout his 20 years in the role.

He stated that he was unaware of the rules governing expenses which was questioned by Mr Davies due to Skinner's long spell in the role.

Skinner said: "It was difficult to know quite what the rules were from time to time.

"I had a very rudimentary knowledge of what the rules stated and that is what I based my assumptions on."

Mr Davies reminded him Mrs Forbes said she had never seen the rules but Skinner said he believed he had supplied them to her.

He suggested that Skinner was willing to risk breaching the rules but this was firmly denied.

The prosecutor also asked if Skinner now believed he had broken the rules but the former MEP replied: 'I don't think I did.'

Skinner was also unable to rule out whether he thought there was something 'rotten' going on within his office.

Mr Davies suggested that Skinner was keen to employ people who he had a personal connection with - including his father, both of his wives and friends of his family.

He also questioned Skinner about what happened when he ended Mrs Forbes employment as his bookkeeper.

Mr Davies said: "You ended your work with Karen Forbes because she was not doing a good job."

Skinner replied that he felt that she was not keeping up with what was necessary to be done in the role.

Mr Davies told the court that on May 30 2008 a payment of £1,500 had been paid from PAA to Mrs Forbes after she had stopped working for Skinner.

Skinner said: "She had been doing some work for me still but not in the role she previously had.

"She had put a lot of effort into her work - therefore it was an honest payoff for her.

"I would call it a loyalty payment, like a redundancy."

This was questioned by the prosecutor as Skinner had earlier been critical of the job Mrs Forbes had done towards the end of her employment.

Mr Davies said: "You're saying she deserved that money but in effect you were ending your professional relationship with her because you felt she was not doing a good job.

"Of course, it did not cost you anything to do that - this was tax payers money."

Skinner stated that he believed he had a principle obligation to his employees to ensure that they were looked after financially.

Mr Davies outlined that as well as his monthly salary Skinner received 'generous' allowances which Skinner agreed.

He added that a tax payer might consider that Skinner was 'living in effect for free' to which Skinner firmly disagreed.

Skinner, who was a Member of the European Parliament for the Labour Party for South East England between 1999 and 2014 and an MEP for West Kent for five years before that, denies two counts of making a false instrument, one count of fraud and one count of false accounting.

The trial continues.