British legislator sent to prison for expense claims

Former Labour Party MP Jim Devine was sentenced on Thursday to 16 months in prison. He had been convicted of two charges of false accounting for filing bogus invoices for cleaning and printing work totalling more than 8,000 pounds ($13,000).

Another member of Britain’s House of Commons has been sentenced to prison for making fraudulent expense claims.

Former Labour Party MP Jim Devine was sentenced on Thursday to 16 months in prison. He had been convicted of two charges of false accounting for filing bogus invoices for cleaning and printing work totalling more than 8,000 pounds ($13,000).

Two other former Labour lawmakers have been convicted and sentenced to prison in the scandal of expense claims. John Taylor, a former Conservative member of the House of Lords, is awaiting sentencing after being convicted in February.

A total of 392 current and former legislators were ordered to repay a total of 1.12 million pounds in expenses.