Now another politician convicted

This time, an ex-Conservative peer (Lord Hanningfield) has been convicted of stealing £14,000 of expenses when he was a member of the upper house. We wait to see what his sentence will be. In the meantime, Essex police have announced that they will be investigating his expenses claims while leader of Essex County Council.

Yet Another ex-MP is jailed for Expenses fraud

Today (May 20th), another ex-MP, Elliot Morley, who was an Agriculture Minister in the previous Labour government, was jailed for 16 months for "stealing" more than £30,000 in expenses during his time as an MP. Mr Morley is the last of the four to be dealt with by the courts.

MP number 4 pleads guilty

Today (April 7th, 2011) a fourth MP (Elliot Morley) has pleaded guilty to stealing £30,000 expenses. This money comprised expenses relating to mortgage costs over a three year period together with a loan that had already been paid off.

It is extremely hard to believe that he did not know that one mortgage had been paid off when he continued claiming for it, and then to overclaim for another just beggars belief. We now have to wait until the 12 May to find out how long he will have to serve in prison.

Rail Union Boss lives in subsidised housing

In today's Sunday Times, it is revealed that Bob Crow, the firebrand leader of the Rail Maritme & Transport Union, lives (with his partner) in accomodation meant for poor people who cannot afford to get onto the housing ladder, yet he is paid (in 2009) £145,548 according to the latest RMT accounts. He should be required to pay the full economic price of the accomodation or buy a house (without any discount).

Three MP's have already been jailed for stealing less money from the House of Commons. Why aren't the CPS reviewing whether Mr Crow should be charged with theft as well?

Another ex-MP is jailed for Expenses fraud

Yesterday (31 March 2011), Jim Devine, the ex-MP for Livingstone, was jailed for 16 months for defrauding the MP's expenses system of over £8,000. He declared himself bankrupt to avoid paying his ex-secretary £35,000 in redundancy payments and (probably) around £40,000 in fines and legal expenses.


The expenses fraud was bad enough, but to go bankrupt just to avoid (evade) paying your ex-secretary redundancy and your lawyers fees is absolutely unforgiveable.

MP number 2 is sent to prison and number 3 is convicted.

Yesterday, Eric Illsley, the recently resigned MP for Barnsley Central, who pleaded guilty (reluctantly) to theft from the taxpayer, was sentenced to 12 months in prison. On the same day, in the same court, Jim Devine, who replaced the much respected MP Robin Cook, was found guilty of fraud relating to parlaimentary expenses.

His offence was creating false invoices for things like printing which never occurred (apart from the false invoice, of course).

These people never learn.

Benefit Cheque abuse

Just seen in my local MP's tweet. A local resident took her benefit cheque into Curry's and purchased a 42" HiDef Plasma TV which cost £1,099. Apparently, this shop sees a lot of this sort of purchase (and clearly makes a lot of money out of this). My taxes are funding this lifestyle. It is time that our MP's changed the rules for benefit payments. Give the recipients vouchers to be spent in supermarkets (for food), and other shops for basic clothing needs. Do NOT give them cash which no doubt will be spent on high value luxury goods that ordinary honest taxpayers normally cannot justify buying, and Sky TV subscriptions, and online gambling.

It is time that parlaiment acted to stop this waste of public money.

Euro MEP's are now found to be on the make

According to an article in today's Sunday Times, several Euro MEP's are taking money for passing EU legislation. See the article here for more detail (there will be further detail available for subscribers to the Sunday Times).

This scandal has to be stopped. Some of these MEPS clearly have no interest in representing their constituents, just in lining their own already capacious pockets. If the European Parlaiment is to properly represent the democratic wishes of the people of the EU, then these corrupt MEP's must be sacked and then imprisoned, if only to show that democracy means something.

And now a second MP has pleaded guilty.

And now a second (Labour) MP, Eric Illsley, has decided to stand down as an MP following his recent decision to change his plea to guilty to cheating on his parlaimentary expenses. Two more (Labour) MP's have still to face trial on the same charges as now two of their number have already pleaded guilty.
It is interesting to note that this expenses regime was introduced only thirty years ago, to assuage the anger of then MP's in the House of Commons because their salaries were to be capped. How appropriate that the fury of those MP's should come back to haunt the last Labour government.

David Chayter has been jailed

The British ex-MP (Member of Parlaiment) for Bury North has today been jailed for 18 months for stealing £20,000 from the House of Commons. There are another two MP's who were charged with Mr Chaytor whose cases are still to be heard. Chaytor pleaded guilty, whereas these two (plus the Conservative peer) are still intending to plead not guilty. Public opinion will no doubt determine that the court today was unduly lenient with Mr Chaytor, but his ex-constituents will be well pleased,  I am sure. Now they can get on with their lives knowing that at least he cannot continue stealing their taxes to fund his luxurious lifestyle. The full story of this event can be found here.