Former Labour MP 'fiddled £9,000 using false invoices'

Former Labour MP Jim Devine arrives at Southwark Crown Court, where he is set to go on trial accused of fiddling his parliamentary expenses

Former Labour MP Jim Devine arrives at Southwark Crown Court, where he is set to go on trial accused of fiddling his parliamentary expenses

A former Labour MP fiddled his parliamentary expenses using bogus invoices for cleaning work from a company run by his local pub landlord, a court heard yesterday.

Jim Devine, on trial for falsely claiming almost £9,000 from the public purse, also claimed for the printing of leaflets that were never produced.

Peter Wright QC, prosecuting, said the ex-MP for Livingston in Scotland used five false invoices to claim for the cleaning work and two false documents to claim for printing leaflets.

He told London’s Southwark Crown Court: ‘It’s a false claim for expenses. They are from a legitimate company but they are not in respect of work that was done. They were in fact false documents.’

Devine, of Bathgate, West Lothian, became an MP following a by-election in 2005 after the death of former foreign secretary Robin Cook.

He stood down at the 2010 election. The 57-year-old – who denies two charges of false accounting – sat in the dock as the case against him was described as ‘very straightforward’.

Mr Wright said the former MP made the claims ‘with a view to gain for himself, or with intent to cause loss to another – the public purse’.

He said the first count alleges that between July 2008 and May 2009 Devine dishonestly claimed £3,240 for cleaning services for his second home from Tom O’Donnell Hygiene and Cleaning Services.

He added: ‘Mr O’Donnell was the landlord of Mr Devine’s local pub. Tom O’Donnell neither submitted these five invoices, nor provided the services for him.’

Devine was a ‘regular’ at the pub called the Prince of Wales, near his second home on Elliott’s Row in Elephant and Castle, South East London, Mr Wright said. Referring to the second count, that alleges Devine dishonestly claimed £5,505 for stationery from Armstrong Printing, Mr Wright said: ‘The invoices were fiction. No such costs had been incurred.

‘It was merely a device in which to receive a substantial amount of public money to which he was not entitled.’

He explained to jurors that MPs may only claim back expenses which ‘are wholly reasonable and necessarily incurred by them in relation to their parliamentary duties’, as set out in The Green Book.

Referring to the Parliamentary rules, Mr Wright said of the fundamental principles MPs should adhere to when making expenses claims: ‘These are based on concepts of selflessness, integrity, objectivity, accountability, openness, honesty and leadership. We say these are qualities of which Mr Devine demonstrated a woeful inadequacy.’

The trial continues.


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