Duncan Hunter blames bill on purchase from teenage son, followed by unauthorised charges as he tried to undo damage

A US congressman has been criticised by the Federal Election Commission for spending $1,300 (£921) of campaign funds on video games.

But Duncan Hunter, a Republican representative from Alpine, California, blames the charges on a mistake by his son.

Hunter’s spokesman, Joe Kasper, told the San Diego Tribune that the teenage boy used his father’s credit card to buy one game on Steam, Valve’s PC gaming store. That was followed by “several unauthorised charges” as Hunter tried to close the account, Kasper said, adding that the campaign won’t pay anything back until a “fraud investigation” is concluded.

On 13 October 2015, three charges were made from Steam to Hunter’s campaign card, according to the FEC’s letter to his campaign treasurer: one for $19.83, one for $5.00 and one for $24.90. The day after, another $24.90 charge was made. Five days later, charges for $5.00, $7.05, $24.90, $47.59 and $5.00 were made.

The sporadic charges continued to 16 December, by which point the sum had totalled $1,302. They were filed in the campaign’s year-end report with the note that they were “personal expenditures, to be paid back”. It is not clear how the 67 separate charges resulted from the purchase of one game and multiple attempts to close the Steam account.