A former Labour MP was sentenced Friday, Jan. 7, in London a year and a half in prison for false accounting. He becomes the first elected jailed after a resounding scandal of expense that had spattered the British elected in 2009. David Chaytor, 61, pleaded guilty to providing false invoices for a total of 22,650 pounds (27,000 euros) to have them reimburse its expense of parliament.The sum of related services which had actually been provided free of rent and allegedly paid between 2005 and 2008 for two homes in London and the north-west England. These homes actually belonged to his mother and himself. Mr Chaytor is the first former elected to be sentenced for claiming reimbursement of expenses to which he was not entitled, as a result of revelations in the Daily Telegraph which began in 2009.
The scandal had lasted several months, led to resignations chain and shocked public opinion in its scope. An independent audit revealed that more than half of British elected the last parliament - 390 of 646 - had committed irregularities in their pocket expenses and had to repay over one million euros in total.
Following the scandal, a new stricter regime was introduced. In addition to Mr. Chaytor, two other former deputies, a deputy and two members of the House of Lords, Parliament's upper house, must still be tried in connection with these revelations. They each pleaded not guilty. A former secretary - unelected - House of Commons, lower house of Parliament, was also sentenced last September to nine months in prison.
Reacting to the conviction, a spokesman for the Labour Party said Mr Chaytor, already suspended from training, is now officially excluded. The former MP, who had renounced stand for legislative elections in May 2010, faced up to seven years in prison. "The behavior [members] must be honest if we are to maintain public confidence in parliamentary institutions and the law," Judge John Saunders said in announcing the award.
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