Jim Devine found guilty over expenses claims
Jim Devine, the former Labour MP for Livingston, has been found guilty of two counts of making false expense claims, after the jury was shown his revealing interview with Krishnan Guru-Murthy.
At the trial in Southwark Crown Court in London on Thursday, Devine was found guilty of two of the three charges of falsely claiming almost £9,000 in expenses.
He had been accused of two instances of falsely claiming £3,240 for cleaning services and one charge of falsely claiming £5,505 for stationery services. Devine denied all three charges.
The jury of six men and six women took two hours and 45 minutes to agree with the prosecution that on one of the cleaning charges and the stationery count Devine showed a “woeful inadequacy” in abiding by the core principles expected of MPs. He was cleared of one charge – relating to £360 of cleaning work.
Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said the case against Devine was “very straightforward”.
The former MP made the fraudulent claims “with a view to gain for himself, or with an intent to cause loss to another – the public purse”.
The prosecutor said a guide known as the Green Book was readily available to MPs and clearly set out the rules and regulations on submitting expenses that must relate to parliamentary duties.
Unconditional bail
Devine was granted unconditional bail by Mr Justice Saunders, the trial judge, and he will be sentenced in due course.
The 57-year-old former Labour parliamentarian stood down as an MP last year after being prevented by the party from standing again.
Devine said he had paid a cleaner cash and had been told he could move money between accounts to cover staff costs.
On the charge of falsely claiming for stationery, Devine insisted that the money claimed had instead been used to cover staffing costs, and he had been advised by another Labour MP and expenses officials at the Commons Fees Office that that was allowed.
Justice's love of shaming
Such are the peculiarities of British justice, that various forms of very public humiliation arise, and this afternoon was one such instance.
Out from Southwark Crown Court came Jim Devine's lawyer explaining his client would appear for pictures but no words.
Moments later Devine was there, brief at his side. The lawyer murmured to Devine that he might like to move forward.
"No, no, no - let's go."
And off they went into the driving rain.
Not that the humiliation ended there. Devine and legal team had to make their way on foot to leave court, slowly walking with a posse of cameras and photographers shuffling backwards just ahead of them.
A court security man looked on at it all, shaking his head.
Another small ritual of punishment, disgrace and humiliation had just unfolded on the soaking steps of Southwark Crown Court.
There will be more when Jim Devine returns for sentencing in a few weeks' time, for the legal process of gradually dismantling a convicted person's reputation is, in the cases of these disgraced MPs, both protracted and very public.
Justice indeed, being seen to be done.
In his defence Gavin Millar QC questioned why Devine would claim for small sums such as £180 invoices for cleaning?
“Why would Mr Devine go to the lengths of photocopying a blank invoice and persuading someone to write a lie on it for £180?
Millar argued that allegations that Devine was falsely claiming the money to clear his overdraft didn’t make sense:
“The Crown can’t have their cake and eat it. Either he wanted to get rid of his overdraft of thousands and thousands of pounds or he didn’t.
“£180 is hardly going to make a difference.”
However, the prosecution had argued that Devine knew he was engaged in dishonest behaviour and that “he knew it”.
Peter Wright QC for the prosecution said: “It was a fraud that started out small and once he was satisfied that he could get away with it, it got even greater.
Channel 4 News interview
On the day he was charged, 5 February 2010, Jim Devine admitted to Channel 4 News that he had submitted claims for stationery, that came out of his communications budget. He then moved the money to cover staff costs which came out of a separate budget.
Such was the revelatory nature of the interview, it was played out to the jury.
Read the full transcript: When Jim Devine admitted "moving money around"
Jail sentence
Later, another former Labour MP – Eric Illsley – was jailed for 12 months for dishonestly obtaining £14,500 of taxpayers’ money between May 2005 and April 2008 by inflating or inventing claims relating to his second home in Kennington, south London.
Illsley, who stood down only this week as the MP for Barnsley Central, pleaded guilty last month to three counts of false accounting.
Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Illsley bore a small but significant part of the responsibility for the public’s loss of trust in MPs following the expenses scandal.
“It is vital that people feel able to trust our legislators and their use of public funds,” he added.
Illsley is expected to start his sentence in Wandsworth Prison in south London, but could be released after three months under early release rules for non-violent prisoners who pose a low risk.