By chief political correspondent Simon Cullen
Photo: Federal police issued Mr Slipper with a summons for the offences yesterday. (AAP: Dean Lewins, file photo)
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Former parliamentary speaker Peter Slipper is alleged to have used taxpayer-funded taxi vouchers to visit a string of Canberra wineries, according to documents filed in the Magistrates Court.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP) yesterday announced they had served Mr Slipper with a summons to appear in court in relation to three offences of dishonestly causing a risk of a loss to the Commonwealth.
Documents released by the court this afternoon show Mr Slipper allegedly spent $1,194 on taxi vouchers that were used in part to visit several Canberra wineries on three occasions during the first half of 2010.
The trips allegedly occurred before Mr Slipper was appointed to the speaker's chair and while he was still a Coalition backbencher.
On the first occasion in January 2010, Mr Slipper is said to have visited five wineries and a restaurant in the hills outside Canberra.
According to the AFP, Mr Slipper filled out four Cabcharge dockets instead of one, and used vague language such as travelling between "suburbs to suburbs".
"He deliberately did not fill in the actual details of the trip and deliberately did not fill in the actual fare of the trip of $337," AFP officer Michael Turner said in his sworn statement before the court.
"His intention in doing so was to hide from the Department of Finance and Administration the fact that he had used the Cabcharge card when he knew he was not entitled to do so."
In April 2010, Mr Slipper is accused of using taxi vouchers in a similar way to visit three wineries and the same restaurant.
On June 27 that year, police say Mr Slipper used five Cabcharge dockets to pay for a number of trips, including to a winery outside Canberra, although he did not include those details when he filled out the dockets.
According to police, Mr Slipper knew his use of taxpayer-funded car transport was against the rules set down by the Remuneration Tribunal.
On a number of occasions in 2006 and 2007, the Department of Finance and Administration wrote to Mr Slipper asking that paper-based taxi vouchers stop being used in favour of an electronic Cabcharge card.
The court documents state that the department believed the card was a "more secure and accountable form of payment".
Mr Slipper has been summonsed to appear in the Canberra Magistrates Court on February 15.
He has not responded to the ABC's request for comment.
Mr Slipper stepped down from the speaker's chair in April after being accused of sexual harassment by his then staff member James Ashby.
The Federal Court threw out the case, although Mr Ashby's spokesman has said there will be an appeal.
Slipper to be charged over Cabcharge winery tour - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
