Inflated expense accounts while in Parliament, in England, it costs the prison. Thus the former Labour MP David Chaytor was sentenced yesterday to 18 months in prison, after being involved in the scandal in 2009 involved several British politicians to have required repayment is not due. Chaytor, 61, was elected to the seat of Bury North, Manchester.First to be convicted of the inflated costs, the former MP had submitted false bills to the House to receive refunds of public money for more than 18 thousand pounds (more than 21 thousand euro). Among other things, Chaytor had obtained between 2005 and 2006, 12 000 pounds for the cost of renting an apartment in the heart of Westminster, in Regency Street, claiming to pay 1,175 pounds per month to a certain Elizabeth Sarah Rastrick.
But the accommodation was actually owned by the same Chaytor and his wife. While Rastrick was their daughter, but the family had been hidden in the bills stating only his mother's surname. With the same strategy, the former deputy had obtained reimbursements for more than 5 thousand pounds for the lease of another house, this time owned by the mother.
When the scandal of false expense reports was discovered about a year and a half ago, the House of Commons tried to start legal action to block the release of information. But British newspapers, first of all, the Daily Telegraph, documented expenses of MPs and the squandering of public money.
That, in some cases, was used to pay gardening tools, the domestic worker to clean the house, taken in the dvd rental, baby sitter. But even on real estate mortgages and taxes. Chaytor faces up to seven years in prison and had admitted his guilt. The sentencing of former parliamentary is "the only way to restore public confidence in the parliamentary system - said the judge who handed down the sentence -.
Trust that requires politicians to take only what is legitimate, "said the judge. Our representatives play an important role in society and it is necessary that their behavior is always honest. " A defense lawyer, nothing is served by Chaytor, James Sturman, "If the money received had been declared in a transparent and honest, he would have been due entirely to the last penny," he told the court, adding that the his client had pleaded guilty to "a profound and genuine remorse." What Chaytor is the first case in which a former member of Parliament since he was imprisoned in 2001, the conservative Lord Archer was given a sentence of four years for perjury and obstruction of justice.
The Labour Party, which had suspended Chaytor upon initiation, it has now expelled. The former MP had spent the first night in prison in Wandsworth, south London, where the same has recently been locked Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. However, it could leave prison as early as late May, because of regulations on non-violent, low-risk prisoners.
David Ghilotti
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