The former family home of disgraced ex-Dover MP Charlie Elphicke - who claimed universal credit following his spectacular fall from grace - made a £700,000 profit when recently sold, KentOnline can reveal.

Shamed Tory Elphicke, who was given a two-year jail sentence in 2020 for sexual assault, was recently summonsed to court to explain why he hadn't paid £35,000 legal fees.

In November, sitting at Uxbridge Magistrates Court, judge Mrs Justice Whipple instructed Elphicke to pay the outstanding sum within a year and suggested he use the proceeds from the sale of his house.

According to property website Rightmove, the substantial four-bedroomed detached house at Bay Hill in St Margaret's Bay made a £700,000 profit when it was sold for £1.525million in March 2021.

At the time of the hearing two months ago, the 50-year-old former government whip said: “I have made a claim for universal credit that is being processed. I have no job, I have no career, I am long-term unemployed. I am working with the job centre and my probation officer to find a new career. I am separated from my wife who has filed for divorce.”

The court heard Elphicke received £51,000 from the sale of his marital home, but most of the money has been used “in legal fees and to pay rent”.

Elphicke, who had been MP for Dover from 2010 to 2019 before his estranged wife Natalie became the area's parliamentarian, served half of his term following early release last September. He was convicted on three counts of sexual assault, which included groping and chasing one victim around his home while chanting 'I'm a naughty Tory'.

His barrister Ian Winter QC had told the court his client had “a fair bit of debt”, and that his estranged wife loaned him £100,000 to pay for legal bills.

He paid six months’ rent upfront for a one-bedroom flat, valued online at nearly £475,000, in Fulham, south-west London, adding: “That is why I have very limited cash to meet my living expenses.”

An application is in to demolish the existing 1920s home called The Edge and rebuild another large house in its place.

According to one online property website, The Move Market, it is ranked the most expensive property in the area.