Expenses fraud: ex-MP Chaytor gets 18 months

Former Labour MP David Chaytor became the first politician to be jailed as a result of the 2009 expenses scandal when he was sentenced this afternoon to 18 months in prison
after admitting three counts of false accounting totalling £18,350.
 
Sentencing him at Southwark Crown Court, Judge Mr Justice Saunders said Chaytor had committed a "serious breach of trust". He was given the prison term despite the pleas of defence barrister James Sturman QC, who described Chaytor as "a broken man".
 
Chaytor was first elected MP for Bury North in the 1997 general election and represented the constiuency until he was suspended by the Parliamentary Labour Party when the expenses scandal broke. He had pleaded guilty to the three fraud charges at the Old Bailey last month.
 
In claiming more than £20,000 in expenses - not all of which he received - Chaytor submitted a series of bogus invoices, which the prosecution said proved that he knew what he was doing was wrong. Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said: "Mr Chaytor knew the rules, and we say why else would he produce false documents in support of his claims otherwise?"
 
One of the charges related to claims worth £12,925 for renting for a flat in London between 2005 and 2006. However, it turned out he actually owned the flat and was paying the £1,175 a month rent to his daughter.
 
He also claimed £5,425 to rent a house in Bury which was owned by his mother, who was suffering from Alzheimer's and had been moved to a care home. Under Commons rules he was not allowed to rent from a family member. The money he received was never paid to his mother, who has since died.
 
A third charge concerned a £1,950 bill for IT services in May 2006. Chaytor submitted two invoices from a man named Paul France but no money was paid to him.
 
Between 2001 and 2009, Chaytor claimed about £142,000 for the cost of living in both London and the North West.
 
Although he is the first MP to be sent to prison over the expenses scandal, he may not be the last. Several other politicians face trials over their expense claims. They are Scunthorpe Labour MP Elliot Morley, Jim Devine, the former Labour MP for Livingston, Eric Illsley, who represented Barnsley Central for Labour, Tory peer Lord Hanningfield and former Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick. ·