Expenses ex-MP pleads guilty
By politics.co.uk staff
Fomer Labour MP David Chaytor, one of a handful of parliamentarians being prosecuted on criminal charges, has pleaded guilty.
At the Old Bailey this afternoon, Mr Chaytor made the plea in response to three charges of false accounting under the Theft Act in relation to his expenses claims.
The charges include dishonest claims for £1,950 on IT services in 2006 and £5,425 renting a property in his constituency from his mother the following year.
Mr Chaytor also claimed nearly £13,000 from September 2005 on rent for a property in London – which it subsequently emerged that he himself owned.
The former Bury North MP stood down at the last election as one of the most widely reported examples of expenses abuse circulated by the Daily Telegraph.
His trial, the first of the accused parliamentarians, had been due to begin on Monday.
Two other former Labour MPs and one former Conservative peer are also being prosecuted over their expenses claims.
Their attempt to used the ancient legal defence of parliamentary privilege was dismissed by the Court of Appeal.
Mr Chaytor is set to be sentenced on January 7th and has been given unconditional bail.
The maximum sentence for the charges is seven years imprisonment.
