Ex-UK politician jailed over expenses swindle

(Bloomberg): Former Labour Party UK MP David Chaytor has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for filing fraudulent expenses while serving in the British Parliament, becoming the first politician to be punished by a court in the scandal over reimbursements. Chaytor, 61, was sentenced at a hearing at Southwark Crown Court in London on Friday. He pleaded guilty last month after previously denying the charges. “The public are entitled to expect the people who legislate for the public will themselves be honest in their dealings with the state and in particular with their use of public funds,” Judge John Saunders said. “The whole expenses scandal has shaken public confidence in our legislature.”

Chaytor was charged with three counts of false accounting according to the indictment. Chaytor was accused of improperly claiming: 1,950 pounds ($3,025) for information-technology services in May 2006 using false invoices; 12,925 pounds for renting a property he owned in London between September 2005 and September 2006; and 5,425 pounds purportedly for renting a property from his mother.

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