Former British Labour MP Jim Devine was found guilty today of making false expenses claims worth more than £8,000 (€9,440) for printing and cleaning work that was never carried out.
Devine (57), the first MP to stand trial after the parliamentary expenses scandal, was convicted on two charges of false accounting at Southwark Crown Court in London.
A jury cleared him of a third charge relating to £360 of taxpayers' money that he sought to pay a cleaner, the Press Association reported.
The former union official and chairman of the Scottish Labour Party, who represented the town of Livingston, east of Edinburgh, was bailed and will be sentenced in four weeks.
Prosecutor Peter Wright said Devine asked a printing company to give him two invoices, worth £2,400 and £3,105, for work that had never been done. He submitted the "ghost orders" to parliament's fees office with similar false receipts for a cleaner.
"The invoices were fiction. No such costs had been incurred," Mr Wright said. "It was merely a device used by Mr Devine in which to receive a substantial amount of public money to which he was not entitled."
Mr Devine told the court he had been in dispute with his former office manager after he alleged she paid herself 5,000 pounds from his staffing allowance without his knowledge.
Mr Devine said fellow MPs told him he could make claims for stationery and use that money to pay his staff.
Simon Clements, head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Special Crime Division, said Mr Devine's behaviour was inexcusable.
Another former Labour MP, Eric Illsley, was due to be sentenced later today for dishonestly claiming £14,500 in expenses.
Illsley (55), who had represented Barnsley Central since 1987 before stepping down earlier this week, will also appear at Southwark Crown Court. He pleaded guilty to three counts of false accounting relating to three years of
parliamentary expenses claimed on his second home in London.
The claims were made for council tax, telephone bills, service charges, insurance and repairs at his second home in Kennington, south London.
Last month, former Labour MP David Chaytor was jailed for 18 months after admitting fraudulently claiming £20,000 pounds.
Reuters