Another UK MP pleads guilty to fraud
11 January 2011 Last updated at 23:35 GMT
MPs'
expenses: Illsley urged to quit after guilty plea
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2011/01/936.jpg Eric Illsley was re-elected in May 2010 with a majority of more than 11,000
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MP Eric Illsley is under pressure to stand down after admitting he fraudulently claimed more than £14,000 in parliamentary expenses.
He pleaded guilty at Southwark Crown Court to three false accounting charges over claims for his second home.
The MP, already suspended by Labour, will be sentenced next month.
Labour leader Ed Miliband urged him to do the "right thing" and resign from Parliament, while David Cameron called Illsley's position "untenable".
Illsley was re-elected as Labour MP for Barnsley Central in May, but was suspended from the party after being charged shortly afterwards and now sits as an independent.
If Illsley receives a prison term of 12 months or more he will be disqualified from being an MP under the Representation of the People Act 1981.
'Very difficult'
But Mr Miliband urged his former colleague to act now, telling the BBC: "He's no longer a Labour Member of Parliament. I think he should do the right thing and resign as a Member of Parliament because I don't think he can be a credible voice for his constituents having pleaded guilty to such a serious offence."
Mr Cameron's spokesman said: "His personal view would be that it would be a very difficult situation where someone has defrauded the people they are there to represent. That is quite an untenable position."
Senior Labour backbencher Sir Stuart Bell said Parliament should act to "make him resign" if Illsley did not step down himself.
"I would wish a resolution on the floor of the House and the waiving of the sub judice rule so that we can deal with him and we can expel him," he told the BBC.
"This is a matter for Parliament, its reputation and what the public expect of us. Parliament should, for once in its life, stand up for itself and take the action necessary in the interests of the public."
On Friday, former Labour MP David Chaytor became the first person to be jailed over the Westminster expenses scandal.
Continue reading the main story Adam Fleming BBC News Political Correspondent
A prison sentence does not automatically mean the end of a career at Westminster. A sitting member of parliament is only disqualified if they serve more than a year behind bars while in office.
That happened just twice in the twentieth century. Peter Baker - former Conservative MP for South Norfolk - was the last to be barred after being sentenced to seven years for forgery in 1954.
In the mid-1970s Labour MP John Stonehouse was imprisoned after faking his own suicide. He resigned before he could be disqualified.
Sentencing in Eric Illsley's case is not expected until February.
If he is disqualified then the government will move a writ in Parliament allowing a by-election to be held in his seat of Barnsley Central.
Mr Illsley is entitled to remain as an MP if he receives a short or non-custodial sentence, which is sure to encourage those campaigners who are demanding the right to recall members of parliament who have been found guilty of serious wrong-doing.
Illsley is the only serving MP among those facing court. He had previously denied dishonestly claiming more than £25,000 but his barrister, William Coker QC, said his client had admitted wrongly claiming a revised sum of about £14,500.
The expenses claims related to council tax, maintenance, repairs and utility bills for his second home in Kennington, south London, and were made between 2005 and 2008.
Simon Clements, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's special crime division, said: "This was a significant sum of money and the grossly inflated claims he submitted could not be attributed to an oversight or accounting error - indeed he claimed that the expenses system was a way of supplementing members' salaries.
"By his guilty pleas he has accepted that he was dishonest in making these claims. As an elected representative, Eric Illsley took advantage of the trust placed in him by his constituents to act honourably on their behalf.
"Instead, he siphoned off public money into his own pockets and betrayed those who rightly expected the highest standards of integrity from him as a Member of Parliament."
Judge Mr Justice Saunders adjourned the hearing for four weeks for a pre-sentence report on Illsley.
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Shoppers in Barnsley give their views on MP Eric Illsley's admission of guilt
Backbench Labour MP John Mann said there was "obviously going to have to be a by-election" as it was "untenable" for Illsley to carry on as an MP.
He told the BBC News Channel it was "another bad day for Parliament" but he hoped it would demonstrate to the public that politicians were "not above the law".
Roy Millar, chairman of the Barnsley constituency Labour Party, said there would be meeting "in the future weeks and days" to consider a way forward.
"Eric has been a personal friend of mine for at least 25 years and he's been a very good servant to Barnsley and the people of Barnsley, representing them at all levels, but... we accept that the due process of the law will continue," he told BBC News.
David Chaytor was sentenced to 18 months in prison last week after admitting he forged tenancy documents and invoices to falsely claim more than £22,000 of taxpayers' money for rent and IT work from the Commons authorities.
Another UK MP found guilty of theft
Ex-MP Devine guilty of fiddling expenses
https://teakdoor.com/images/imported/2011/02/1675.jpg Mr Devine says he was advised he could claim on his communications allowance to cover staff costs
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Thu Feb 10 2011 19:19:45
Former Labour MP Jim Devine has been found guilty of fiddling his expenses but will have to wait to be sentenced.
Devine, 57, who held the Livingston seat, submitted false invoices for cleaning and printing work totalling £8,385.
He was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of two charges of false accounting. He was cleared of one other count relating to £360 for cleaning work.
The former backbencher, of West Main Street, Bathgate, West Lothian, was the first MP to stand trial in the wake of the expenses scandal.
Devine was granted unconditional bail and the red-faced ex-politician walked with a slight limp out of the dock after he was dismissed by Mr Justice Saunders.
He told the court he acted on advice given to him with a "nod and a wink" during a boozy conversation in a House of Commons watering hole, and he even tried to pin the blame on his former office manager Marion Kinley.
The disgraced former union official told the court from the witness box he found Ms Kinley had paid herself an extra £1,000 in cash for overtime and £4,300 as a bonus.
He said he went straight to the fees office to take control of his account and shortly after, Ms Kinley went on sick leave.
But the jury saw through the defences put to them by Devine and convicted him on two of the three counts of false accounting he faced.
A Scotland Yard spokesman said the force welcomed the guilty verdicts, which he said came after "a thorough and detailed investigation of James Devine's parliamentary claims".
Matthew Sinclair, director of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "Taxpayers will be relieved that in another expenses case justice has been done. After dismissing the arrogant assertion that they were above the law, the courts have again rejected MPs' pathetic excuses for false claims."
