DORSET MPs have defended their expenses claims as receipts dating back five years were finally released.

Details of MPs’ expenses were published by the House of Commons but much of the detail that led to a public outcry was blacked out.

South Dorset MP Jim Knight has justified some of his expenses – including hi-tech purchases.

West Dorset MP Oliver Letwin said he has paid back thousands of pounds in phone calls, made on legitimate constituency business while holidaying abroad.

Mr Letwin, who has already repaid £2,000 for a leaking pipe under a tennis court at his Somerset home, says ‘huge roaming charges’ were to blame for his spiralling August phone bills.

One bill, paid by direct debit in October 2007, was £1,764 for the month.

Mr Letwin, who is chairman of the Conservatives’ Policy Review Team, said: “I holiday abroad in August, but I continue to deal with all my constituency correspondence.

“But I do subtract 20 per cent, for personal calls, on all these mobile phone bills.

“I accept there is a huge cost for me being abroad on holiday while doing my constituency business.

“Since I accept that people could argue I shouldn’t take holidays abroad, that I should take them at home to avoid this bill, I have refunded the difference between the August and the normal monthly bills.”

Mr Letwin confirmed his normal monthly bill is normally in the region of £300.

In the early days of the MPs expense scandal, Mr Letwin was criticised for having his Aga serviced.

After all MPs expenses went online, yesterday, he said: “It’s absolutely ghastly out there at the moment.

“I think a huge part of all this could have been avoided if these expenses had always been published for all to see.

“It would have been the sensible and right thing to do, and then people could have made their judgements.

“We would have know if people were objecting, and if they had objected, things could have been changed.”

Tens of thousands of claim forms and receipts dating to 2004 were published on the Parliament website more than a year after the High Court ordered their publication.

Certain details were blacked out. They included addresses for MPs’ homes, names and details of people and companies to whom payments were made using expenses, and correspondence between MPs and the Commons Fees Office has also been removed.

Mr Knight’s claims included a £7,000 printer and a video editing package.

Details show he spent £7,279 on a MZ770 two-colour system printer last January before spending £173 on services from Sherren printers in February 2008.

He also made claims for a government-issued BlackBerry phone as well as thousands of pounds on computer hardware and software, including £22 on AVS video editor software.

Mr Knight said he believes the expenses were reasonable to allow him to do his job.

He said: “The printer I bought is great for doing high-volume communications to my constituents but it’s not the same quality as lithographic printing and there are times when the higher-quality printing is justified.

“In terms of phones, I have a government-issued BlackBerry, which is the only one secure enough to meet Cabinet rules, and I now use an iPhone as well and pay some of the bill myself.

“The video editing package was used to make a few packages for YouTube, but I wasn’t very impressed with the quality of it.”

Mr Knight’s other parliamentary expenses included a regular subscription to the Dorset Echo and £14.69 to Weymouth and Portland Borough Council for the disposal of five bags of confidential waste.

Mr Knight also claimed back £60 for hiring out Conifers Primary School’s hall for a constituency meeting, £45 on professional photography and £1,880 on promotional material used in a report.

He added: “I remain absolutely happy and confident that what I’ve put through on expenses was necessary for me to be able to do my job and communicate with my constituents.”