Tag Archives: jim devine

The Voice

Conservative Peer in court over parliamentary expenses

By The Voice | Mon 14th March 2011 - 11:27 am

Lord Hanningfield, a Conservative Peer, will appear in court charged with falsely claiming accommodation expenses.

Hanningfield, along with Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, had originally tried to avoid trial, claiming parliamentary privilege. Chaytor was jailed in January, while Devine is awaiting sentencing. Morley is also due to stand trial.

From the BBC:

Lord Hanningfield faces six charges of false accounting between March 2006 and May 2009.

They are said to relate to overnight allowances for staying in London when records allegedly showed he was driven to his home near Chelmsford, Essex.

Lord Hanningfield, who will appear at the Old

…

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Sara Bedford

Former MP jailed for expenses fraud

By Sara Bedford | Fri 7th January 2011 - 2:41 pm

Disgraced former MP David Chaytor was today jailed for 18 months, after admitting to three charges of false accounting on his expenses, totalling over £20,000. He had faced a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment, but his guilty plea was taken into account.

The former Labour MP for Bury North had made claims for renting two properties which were owned by him and his mother, and for IT consultancy for which he was never charged. According to the Daily Telegraph, Chaytor had spread more than £91,100 of expenses claims across five different properties in five years, ‘flipping’ the designation of his second home six times.

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Helen Duffett

Three former Labour MPs face criminal trial over expenses

By Helen Duffett | Wed 10th November 2010 - 10:26 am

The Supreme Court has ruled this morning that three former Labour MPs should face criminal trials over their expenses claims.

Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, charged with theft by false accounting, had previously argued at the Court of Appeal that only Parliament could hear their case.

The three have now exhausted their challenge to an original ruling which rejected their claims to Parliamentary privilege, a 300-year-old immunity from legal proceedings arising from actions within Parliament; however the judge ruled in June that individual expense claims are “not covered by parliamentary privilege and… triable in Crown Court”.

From the

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Helen Duffett

Parliamentary privilege doesn’t protect against criminal trial

By Helen Duffett | Fri 30th July 2010 - 8:06 pm

Three former Labour MPs and a Conservative peer lost their appeals this morning, over last month’s ruling that they could not avoid trial for alleged expenses fraud by claiming Parliamentary privilege.

From the BBC:

Elliott Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield had argued at the Court of Appeal that only Parliament could hear their case.

The four all deny charges of false accounting over their expenses.

The charges carry a maximum sentence of seven years’ imprisonment.

The men had appealed against a ruling in June by Mr Justice Saunders sitting at Southwark Crown Court in central London.

The judge had rejected

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Helen Duffett

Peer and 3 former MPs facing criminal trial

By Helen Duffett | Fri 11th June 2010 - 1:15 pm

A judge has ruled that three former Labour MPs and a Conservative peer may not avoid trial for expenses fraud, rejecting their claims to parliamentary privilege.

Parliamentary privilege is a 300-year-old immunity from legal proceedings arising from actions within Parliament; however the judge ruled that individual expense claims are “not covered by parliamentary privilege and… triable in Crown Court”.

From the BBC:

Mr Justice Saunders rejected arguments by Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield that only Parliament could hear their case.

There was no bar to a trial, he said.

The four, who all deny charges of false

…

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Helen Duffett

Daily View 2×2: 12 March 2010

By Helen Duffett | Fri 12th March 2010 - 7:00 am

Welcome to Friday – and Lib Dem Voice is already in Birmingham for the Liberal Democrats Spring Conference 2010.

If you’re coming too, make sure you join us for the Lib Dem Voice fringe meeting:

I’ll be chairing the discussion on how to Make authoritarian MPs pay at the ballot box, and we’ll be unveiling our new website which will help to do just that.

2 Must-Read Blog Posts

What are other Liberal Democrat bloggers saying? Here are two posts that caught my eye from the Liberal Democrat Blogs aggregator:

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Mark Pack

MPs who opposed expenses reform: how did the three Labour MPs facing trial vote?

By Mark Pack | Mon 8th February 2010 - 7:07 pm

A footnote to my post about the subsequent expenses revelations regarding the 21 Conservative MPs who voted down expenses reform in 2008, before the Daily Telegraph revelations forced everyone’s hand. Of the three Labour MPs now facing criminal charges, two also voted against reform (David Chaytor and Elliot Morley) whilst the third, Jim Devine, abstained on the vote. Well there you go.

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Stephen Glenn

Haggis, Neeps and Liberalism #5

By Stephen Glenn | Thu 18th June 2009 - 9:30 am

My first sighting of Jim Devine – the latest Labour MP to be deselected by the party in the wake of the expenses scandal – was on the eve of poll for the 2001 General Election, shortly after I came across to Scotland to live.

As the agent he was standing alongside Robin Cook waving from an open top bus as they drove through Stoneyburn on a tour of the constituency; we were eating dinner. Victors in cup finals don’t do open bus tours until after the silverware is in their clutches – but such was the certainty …

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