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<span style="font-weight: bold">News Source: OTGNR - </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Former British Labour ...ses ( AFP )...</span>
Former Labour MP David Chaytor has been jailed for 18 months after claiming bogus expenses worth £22,650. The former MP for Bury North is the first politician to be convicted and sentenced over the expenses scandal which rocked Parliament in 2009.He last month pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to three counts of false accounting between November 2005 and January 2008.Chaytor had claimed £12,925 between 2005 and 2006 for renting a flat in Regency Street, Westminster. He had submitted a tenancy agreement apparently showing that he was paying £1,175 a month in rent to the landlord, Sarah Elizabeth Rastrick.But Rastrick was his daughter, and her name had been disguised by using her middle name as a surname. The flat was owned by Chaytor and his wife, who had already paid off the mortgage.Chaytor, 61, also claimed £5,425 between 2007 and 2008 for rent on a property in Castle Street, Bury, which turned out to be owned by his mother. He had submitted a tenancy agreement falsely showing he was paying £775 a month.House of Commons rules do not allow MPs to claim for leasing a property from a family member.A third charge related to two invoices of £995 each for IT support services in May 2006 when the "services had not been provided or charged for". The court heard that money was never paid to Chaytor.Sentencing him, Mr Justice Saunders said the parliamentary expenses scandal has "shaken public confidence in the legislature and angered the public"."These false claims were made in breach of the high degree of trust placed in MPs to only make legitimate claims," he said. "That is the effect they have had and will have in the confidence the public has in politicians."They are elected representatives, they hold an important and powerful place in society. They legislate what the public can and cannot do."It is necessary their behaviour should be entirely honest if public confidence in the parliamentary system and rule of law is to be maintained."Looking thin in a sober charcoal suit, grey shirt and a black tie with white polka dots, Chaytor gave no reaction to the sentence from the dock.Earlier, James Sturman QC had pleaded for any prison sentence to be suspended and for Chaytor to receive a community punishment.He had argued that picking up litter or similar work would punish Chaytor publicly, since he would be photographed."We submit that the sums he received, if he had gone about it transparently, honestly and frankly, he would have been entitled to every penny, if not more than he claimed," Sturman said.Court sources said the former university lecturer would be taken to Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.The former minister and ex-inmate Jonathan Aitken said Chaytor could expect a difficult first few days behind bars.But Aitken, who was jailed for 18 months for perjury and perverting the course of justice in 1999, said Chaytor would be treated as "just another ordinary prisoner" and had no reason to expect unusually unpleasant treatment if he could keep his head down."He will be just another ordinary prisoner, as I was, and that's the best thing that will happen to him," said Aitken, who spent seven months behind bars. "The more anonymous he can be and the quieter it can be for him, the better."A Labour Party spokesman said that Chaytor had already been suspended from the Labour Party and would now be excluded from it.Chaytor, who is from Todmorden, Lancashire, had taken his case to the supreme court in an attempt to prevent it going through the normal criminal courts.Along with former Labour MPs Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, he had argued that criminal proceedings would infringe parliamentary privilege.Chaytor changed his plea to guilty after the supreme court rejected the argument. Morley, the former MP for Scunthorpe, and Devine, who represented Livingston, face separate trials at a future date. David Chaytor is the first politician to be convicted and sentenced over the expenses scandalPhoto Credit: (AFP)http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...68610216515541
<span style="font-weight: bold"> Confirmed : Former British Labour ...ses ( AFP )...</span>
Former Labour MP David Chaytor has been jailed for 18 months after claiming bogus expenses worth £22,650. The former MP for Bury North is the first politician to be convicted and sentenced over the expenses scandal which rocked Parliament in 2009.He last month pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey to three counts of false accounting between November 2005 and January 2008.Chaytor had claimed £12,925 between 2005 and 2006 for renting a flat in Regency Street, Westminster. He had submitted a tenancy agreement apparently showing that he was paying £1,175 a month in rent to the landlord, Sarah Elizabeth Rastrick.But Rastrick was his daughter, and her name had been disguised by using her middle name as a surname. The flat was owned by Chaytor and his wife, who had already paid off the mortgage.Chaytor, 61, also claimed £5,425 between 2007 and 2008 for rent on a property in Castle Street, Bury, which turned out to be owned by his mother. He had submitted a tenancy agreement falsely showing he was paying £775 a month.House of Commons rules do not allow MPs to claim for leasing a property from a family member.A third charge related to two invoices of £995 each for IT support services in May 2006 when the "services had not been provided or charged for". The court heard that money was never paid to Chaytor.Sentencing him, Mr Justice Saunders said the parliamentary expenses scandal has "shaken public confidence in the legislature and angered the public"."These false claims were made in breach of the high degree of trust placed in MPs to only make legitimate claims," he said. "That is the effect they have had and will have in the confidence the public has in politicians."They are elected representatives, they hold an important and powerful place in society. They legislate what the public can and cannot do."It is necessary their behaviour should be entirely honest if public confidence in the parliamentary system and rule of law is to be maintained."Looking thin in a sober charcoal suit, grey shirt and a black tie with white polka dots, Chaytor gave no reaction to the sentence from the dock.Earlier, James Sturman QC had pleaded for any prison sentence to be suspended and for Chaytor to receive a community punishment.He had argued that picking up litter or similar work would punish Chaytor publicly, since he would be photographed."We submit that the sums he received, if he had gone about it transparently, honestly and frankly, he would have been entitled to every penny, if not more than he claimed," Sturman said.Court sources said the former university lecturer would be taken to Wandsworth Prison in south-west London.The former minister and ex-inmate Jonathan Aitken said Chaytor could expect a difficult first few days behind bars.But Aitken, who was jailed for 18 months for perjury and perverting the course of justice in 1999, said Chaytor would be treated as "just another ordinary prisoner" and had no reason to expect unusually unpleasant treatment if he could keep his head down."He will be just another ordinary prisoner, as I was, and that's the best thing that will happen to him," said Aitken, who spent seven months behind bars. "The more anonymous he can be and the quieter it can be for him, the better."A Labour Party spokesman said that Chaytor had already been suspended from the Labour Party and would now be excluded from it.Chaytor, who is from Todmorden, Lancashire, had taken his case to the supreme court in an attempt to prevent it going through the normal criminal courts.Along with former Labour MPs Elliot Morley and Jim Devine, he had argued that criminal proceedings would infringe parliamentary privilege.Chaytor changed his plea to guilty after the supreme court rejected the argument. Morley, the former MP for Scunthorpe, and Devine, who represented Livingston, face separate trials at a future date. David Chaytor is the first politician to be convicted and sentenced over the expenses scandalPhoto Credit: (AFP)http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...68610216515541