Former MP Jim Devine sentenced to 16 months

Jim Devine, the former MP for Livingston, submitted false invoices for cleaning and printing work totalling £8,385 between July 2008 and May 2009. He claimed he acted on advice given with a “nod and a wink” by a fellow MP in a House of Commons bar. During the trial, the jury was shown a Channel 4 News interview which took place on the day he was charged.

Questioned by presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Devine admitted submitting false invoices for stationery in order to pay his staff, though claimed he had done nothing wrong.

Today at the Old Bailey, Mr Justice Saunders told the court that Devine had “set about defrauding the public purse in a calculated and deliberate way.” He said that Devine’s claims that another MP told him that what he did was ‘accepted practice’ were false, adding “These offences constituted a gross breach of trust which, along with others, had had the effect of causing serious damage to the reputation of Parliament.” Since his conviction Devine has been declared bankrupt.

He is the third former MP to be jailed in the wake of the expenses scandal. Two other former Labour members, David Chaytor and Eric Illsley, have already been jailed after pleading guilty to false accounting. Former Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick awaits sentencing after being convicted in January.