POLICE are given more time to investigate Conservative election fraud claims involving newly-elected Police and Crime Commissioner Alison Hernandez.

Devon and Cornwall Police applied for an extension of time to continue investigating four South West MPs and Hernandez who failed to register the accommodation costs of party activists who were driven to marginal constituencies in so-called ‘battle buses’ - coaches painted with Conservative livery.

She was a Conservative election agent in Torbay in May last year and was responsible for registering election expenses spent during the election. Political parties are limited in the amount of money they can spend campaigning to ensure fairness. She faces a one-year prison sentence if found guilty.

Since Ms Hernandez has the power to hire and fire the chief constable, as well as control over Devon and Cornwall Police’s £275million budget, Devon and Cornwall chief constable Shaun Sawyer asked the West Mercia constabulary to conduct inquiries on his behalf.

Although, former MP for Torbay Adrian Sanders was quoted by the Mirror as saying: ‘If another force were brought in Devon and Cornwall would have to meet the costs of their investigations. If so, Ms Hernandez would control the budget.

‘The more one considers this, the more one has to conclude that the political Independence of the Devon and Cornwall force has been compromised by this result.’

A spokesman for Devon and Cornwall Police said: ‘Representatives from Devon and Cornwall Police have attended Chippenham Magistrates Court on Thursday 19th May. This was to seek an extension to allow further time to investigate allegations relating to improper electoral campaign spending returns in Devon and Cornwall, during the 2015 general election.

‘These extensions have been granted and police investigations are now underway.’

Ms Hernandez is now preparing for an extraordinary meeting of the Devon and Cornwall Police and Crime Commissioner Panel expected to take place on Friday, May 27, at the Plymouth Civic Centre and is due to be webcast.

The panel oversees her work and is made up of mainly local councillors and although there are some non-party members, Conservatives outnumber both Labour and Lib Dem members. They are being asked to consider the ‘discharge of the functions of the Police and Crime Commissioner’.

Devon and Cornwall Police are one of eight forces around the country investigating the election spending of more than 20 sitting Conservative MPs after an investigation by the Daily Mirror. All the MPs deny wrongdoing and the Conservative Party insists the costs of the battlebuses were recorded as national campaign costs.

But it had admitted that it failed to declare tens of thousands of pounds of battlebus hotel bills uncovered by Channel 4, saying it was an ‘administrative error’.