A former Labour minister was jailed for 16 months on Friday after admitting dishonestly claiming 30,000 pounds of parliamentary expenses for mortgage repayments, including for a loan that had already been paid off. Elliot Morley, who was fisheries and later environment minster between 1997 and 2006, was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London after pleading guilty to two charges of false accounting at a hearing last month.
He had claimed 800 pounds a month for 3-1/2 years for interest payments on a mortgage on his home in Winterton, Lincolnshire. But the interest payments were actually far lower, varying between five and 50 pounds a month. When the mortgage was redeemed in February 2006 Morley continued to submit his 800 pound monthly claims, an act the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, described as "blatant dishonesty."
"When it was discovered, Mr Morley's answers to the inquiries that were made were lies," Saunders said. Morley had blamed "sloppy accounting" when the claims, totalling more than 30,000 pounds, were first revealed. Saunders said the case was tragic for Morley, who he said had enjoyed a distinguished political career and had been a "positive force for good" in the community. "He has thrown away his good name and good character," Saunders said. The Labour party said it had already suspended Morley from membership and following his jailing was expelling him.
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