Labour sleeze... UNREPORTED by the BritNat press

[Indy]

The Scotsman :

Worst of the worst: expenses MP faces jail

Disgraced former Labour MP Elliott Morley arrives at court

Published Date: 08 April 2011
By Tom Morgan
Former environment minister Elliot Morley is facing prison after admitting being parliament's biggest expenses cheat.

The ex-Labour MP dishonestly claimed mortgage payments worth more than £30,000. Morley is the first ex-minister to face jail over the expenses scandal that rocked Westminster.

He pocketed a total of £30,428 on a phantom mortgage and by inflating the amount he was previously paying.

Just days before he was due to go on trial, Morley entered two guilty pleas for false accounting over claims made against his home in Winterton, Lincolnshire, between 2004 and 2007.

Morley, 58, wrongly filled out 40 forms relating to payments for his home. He claimed thousands of pounds more than any of the other MPs convicted over the scandal.

The prosecution overshadows a long political career. An MP for S****horpe since 1987, he was one of Labour's most prominent voices on agricultural issues and the environment.

Campaigners criticised him for not admitting his crimes earlier. Emma Boon, campaign director at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "It's a shame that Morley took so long to make an admission of guilt.

"Taxpayers had to suffer the insult not only of him stealing from them, but then lying about it for so long and dragging out an expensive prosecution."

She added: "This change of plea is one more small step towards parliament regaining public trust."

Jim Devine, the first MP to stand trial in the wake of the expenses scandal, was branded a liar by a judge last month as he was jailed for 16 months. The former Livingston MP had denied offences totalling £8,385.

Two other former Labour members, David Chaytor and Eric Illsley, have already been jailed for falsely claiming £22,000 and £14,500.

Former Tory peer Lord Taylor of Warwick awaits sentencing after being convicted by a jury in January of falsely claiming more than £11,000 for travel and overnight subsistence.

Morley entered his pleas yesterday as it emerged that MPs were paid £3.2 million in expenses for the final two months of last year.

James Sturman QC, for the defence, told Mr Justice Saunders that his client accepted a jail sentence is likely. After Morley delivered his pleas, Mr Sturman urged the judge to consider his "lifetime of public service".

But, referring to a jail term, he added: "We know it is not a question of if but how long."

Outside court, Morley said "any comments I might make" will be at the next hearing.

Morley, wearing a dark blue suit and striped tie, spoke in court only to confirm his name and enter two guilty pleas.

The brief hearing was adjourned for pre-sentence reports to be submitted by 12 May.

Simon Clements, reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: "Elliot Morley has today admitted his dishonesty.

Well, this has been reported but it's necessary to add him to the long list...

5 days since the last sleaze story of using taxpayers money to further their own ends with fishing questions in Holyrood.

[Indy]

[b]Brown’s £4k exes in just two months[/b]

By KEVIN SCHOFIELD, Political Correspondent

Published: 08 Apr 2011


GORDON Brown raked in more than £4,000 in expenses in just TWO MONTHS as a backbencher - despite making only one Commons speech.

The former PM claimed the cash to cover running costs in his Fife constituency office and for a new computer at his Westminster HQ.

The expenses were on top of his £5,000-a-month salary.

Mr Brown has been criticised for not spending enough time at Westminster since leaving No10 last year.

He has taken part in barely ten per cent of votes and his one Commons speech lasted just over four minutes. There is no suggestion Mr Brown was not entitled to make his expenses claims, which amounted to £4,145.92.

But Tory MP Charlie Elphicke said: "If he is going to charge the taxpayer sums that would make former RBS boss Fred Goodwin blush, he owes his constituents more than a four-minute speech on aircraft carriers."

Last night a spokeswoman for Mr Brown said: "All claims are necessary for his service in his constituency."

Yesterday's figures, released by the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority, showed MPs claimed £3.2million in November and December last year.

They also showed that shamed Eric Illsley, the ex-Labour MP jailed in February for fiddling his expenses, kept claiming cash even after he was charged.

Another Labourite sleaze story... surprise.

[Indy]

Actually, it's the LibDems for a change :

27 April 2011 Last updated at 07:13 GMT

Scott Cassie: Embezzlement charge councillor steps down
Continue reading the main story
Related Stories

Couple charged with embezzlement

An Aberdeen councillor facing court proceedings on embezzlement charges has stepped down.

Former planning convener Scott Cassie was charged, along with his wife Moira, in August, following a police inquiry into claims of financial mismanagement at Garthdee Community Council.

Mr Cassie, 60, represented Airyhall, Broomhill and Garthdee

He resigned from the city's Liberal Democrat group in 2009 but had continued to serve as an independent.

In a short statement he announced that for "personal reasons" he was now resigning from the council with immediate effect.

His case is due to call at Aberdeen Sheriff Court on Thursday.

[Indy]

Former MP Elliot Morley jailed over expense claims

Published Date: 20 May 2011
By DAVID GUNN
DISGRACED former Labour MP Elliot Morley has been sentenced to 16 months imprisonment for making fraudulent expense claims.



The former environment minister, pictured, pleaded guilty last month to claiming more than £30,000 in fake mortgage payments.

He entered two guilty pleas for false accounting relating to his home in Winterton, near S****horpe, North Lincolnshire, between 2004 and 2007.
Morley was sentenced at London's Southwark Crown Court.

Morley, who appeared flushed throughout the hearing, showed no emotion as the sentence was delivered.

The former Labour MP, the most high profile of a string of convictions since the expenses revelations rocked Westminster, pocketed £30,428 by claiming for a phantom mortgage and inflating the amount he was previously paying.

In total, he claimed £16,800 on a bogus mortgage and £15,200 after inflating the amount he was previously paying - for which he should have been entitled to only £1,572.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Morley was guilty of "blatant dishonesty" and had "thrown away his good name and character."

He said: "I am satisfied from the nature of the mortgage transactions and the correspondence that the excessive claims were made deliberately and are not explicable even in part by oversight."

The prosecution overshadows a political career lasting more than 20 years.

As MP for S****horpe since 1987, former teacher Morley was one of Labour's most prominent voices on agricultural issues and the environment.

He was party spokesman on rural affairs and animal welfare from 1989 until the 1997 election victory, and served under Tony Blair as environment minister from 2003 to 2006.

But during that time he was claiming thousands of pounds more than any of the other MPs convicted.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, told the court said Morley had "engaged in the wholesale abuse of the expenses system".

The packed courtroom was told that between May 2004 and November 2007, Morley claimed significantly more than the value of his mortgage on his second home.

Despite paying off the mortgage of the property in 2006, he continued to claim £800 a month in fraudulent payments.

Between May 2004 and February 2006, he submitted 19 claims for "excessive mortgage payments" to which he was not entitled, worth £15,200.

Between March 2006 and November 2007 he submitted 21 second-home allowance forms totaling £16,800 for payments on a mortgage that did not exist.

Mr Justice Saunders said: "The continuation of the claim for £800 a month after the mortgage had been redeemed can properly be described as blatant dishonesty."

He added: "The results of this case are tragic for the defendant and his family.

"He has thrown away his good name and good character."

A Labour Party spokesman said: "Elliot Morley had already been suspended from the Labour Party and following his custodial sentence he has now been excluded from the party."

Well, the election is over but their shenanigans aren't.

Now that there are fewer of them (and if they get kicked to death by voters at the coming council elections) there'll be even fewer. Maybe I'll be able to document far fewer seedy criminal stories.