OTTAWA - The Conservative party and its fundraising body have pleaded guilty and will pay fines over charges of exceeding campaign spending limits in 2006 and failing to report all expenses.

In return, charges against four individuals are dropped and the Conservatives are no longer facing a more serious charge of wilfully violating the Elections Act.

The party has agreed it should pay $25,000 on each of two counts and the Conservative Fund will pay $1,000 on each of two counts.

The agreement ends one round of a long-running campaign financing fight between the Conservative party and Elections Canada.

Conservative Senators Irving Gerstein and Doug Finley and party officers Mike Donison and Susan Kehoe were charged earlier this year with wilfully violating the party's spending limit in the 2006 federal campaign that brought Prime Minister Stephen Harper to power.

The plea agreement means they are off the hook.

The Tories consistently maintained they did nothing wrong in shuffling money between national and local campaigns in the 2006 election in what was called the "in-and-out" scheme.

But Elections Canada had said the process allowed the national party to exceed its spending limit by permitting local candidates to claim rebates on expenses they hadn't actually incurred.

It alleged the financing method allowed the party to exceed its $18.3-million spending limit by more than $1 million.

The elections watchdog said in a statement the prosecution "reinforces the importance of the spending limits for ensuring the fairness of our electoral system, including the distinct election spending limits for candidates and political parties."

"It also confirms that there can be no transfer of expenses."

Party spokesman Fred DeLorey called the deal "a big victory for the Conservative Party of Canada."

"Every single Conservative accused of wrongdoing has been cleared," he declared in a statement released shortly after the convictions were secured.

The scheme was always intended to comply with the Elections Act, DeLorey contended, calling the case "a long-standing administrative dispute with Elections Canada over whether certain campaign expenses should be counted as local or national."

"When it was clear that Elections Canada had changed its interpretation of the law, the Conservative party adjusted its practices for the 2008 and 2011 election campaigns," he said.

"Ultimately, Conservative candidates spent Conservative dollars on Conservative ads."

The charges came as the party and Elections Canada continued to fight the issue in civil court.

The Supreme Court agreed last month to hear arguments in that case.