FORMER LABOUR Scottish MP Jim Devine has been found guilty of making false House of Commons expenses claims, partly on the evidence of an Irish publican, who runs a pub frequented by the disgraced ex-politician.
Tom O’Donnell, the landlord of the Prince of Wales pub on St George’s Road in Southwark, gave evidence during the trial that he had given Mr Devine a blank receipt for a legitimate cleaning job at Mr Devine’s flat.
However, the prosecution alleged that Mr Devine made a number of photocopies of the receipt before he filled it in for Mr O’Donnell to verify and later used the photocopies to make a number of fraudulent claims.
During his evidence, Mr O’Donnell, who is believed to be from Co Kerry, though he has not made himself available to journalists, said he had met Mr Devine at a race meeting in Co Kerry some years ago.
Mr O’Donnell, who also runs a cleaning company, sent one of his workers, a Polish woman named only as Larissa, to help keep Mr Devine’s one-bedroom flat in the Elephant and Castle tidy and to iron his clothes.
Having submitted one legitimate receipt from Mr O’Donnell, Mr Devine subsequently put in three more, which rose in value from £180 to £2,160 as he became confident that the claims would not be checked.
Once approached by detectives, Mr O’Donnell went to Mr Devine to query the issue, only to be told that the detectives were probably journalists and that he should not worry.
The 57-year-old former MP was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of two charges of false accounting for submitting fake invoices for £8,385 worth of cleaning and printing work. He was cleared on one other charge.
Mr Devine claimed at one point that some of the money was used to pay a staff member, but he would not name her because she was claiming social welfare benefits at the time.
Meanwhile, former Labour Barnsley MP Eric Illsley was sentenced to a year in jail at Southwark Crown Court yesterday for dishonestly receiving £14,500 of public money through inflating claims on his second home in London.
Mr Illsley’s claims only ended after the Commons changed the rules in April 2008 and started to demand receipts from MPs for all claims over £25. Prior to then, MPs could submit claims for up to £250 without paperwork.
