LONDON // A former British government minister was charged with fraud yesterday for allegedly fiddling his parliamentary expenses.
In the latest chapter of a scandal that has rocked Britons' confidence in politics and politicians over the past year, Elliot Morley, a former environment minister, will be joined in the dock by two other Labour MPs and a Conservative member of the House of Lords.
The four were among six MPs and peers investigated by police last year after widespread abuse of the parliamentary expenses system was revealed.
Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, announced yesterday that charges would be brought against Mr Morley, fellow Labour MPs David Chaytor and Jim Devine, and the Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield, charged under his birth name of Paul White. If convicted, they each face a maximum of seven years in jail.
Mr Starmer said an investigation into a fifth parliamentarian ? believed to be Baroness (Pola) Uddin, who claimed £100,000 (Dh560,000) in allowances for a home she barely visited ? was still continuing. Mr Starmer said there was insufficient evidence to charge the sixth person investigated, Lord (Anthony) Clarke of Hampstead.
The decision to prosecute the four was announced 24 hours after an audit of parliamentary expenses claims in recent years resulted in almost 400 present and past MPs being ordered to repay a total of £1.12 million.
Some of the claims included allowances on London properties owned by members of their own families.
Less seriously, other parliamentarians were found to have claimed for items such as a luxurious duck house, cleaning the moat at one MP's estate, pornographic videos and dog food.
Yesterday's charges, however, now guarantee that, far from the audit signalling the end of the affair, the scandal will drag on into 2010 and is likely to dominate the campaign for the general election, expected in May.
The charges against Mr Morley, who has been MP for Scunthorpe for more than 20 years and who served as a fisheries and environment minister from 1997 to 2006, will inevitably grab most of the headlines.
Last May, the 57-year-old MP announced that he would not be seeking re-election because of the adverse effects the expenses furore was having on his family and his health.
He now faces two charges of theft by false accounting in relation to a mortgage on his constituency home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe.
The charges allege that, between 2004 and 2007, he made claims of £14,428 more than he was entitled to, and a further £16,000 in mortgage interest payments at a time when "there was no longer a mortgage on that property".
Mr Chaytor, the MP for Bury North, was accused of dishonestly claiming £12,925 in rent for a property in London that he owned outright, and £5,425 for rent on a house in Lancashire owned by his mother.
Mr Devine, the MP for Livingston in Scotland, was charged with using false invoices to claim for almost £9,000 for cleaning services and stationery.
He has always admitted making a mistake in submitting the invoices and said yesterday he was "astonished and devastated" to be charged.
Lord Hanningfield, 69, the Conservative spokesman on local government and transport in the House of Lords, faces six charges of dishonestly submitting claims "for expenses to which he knew he was not entitled". These include claims for numerous overnight stays in London when records show that he had been chauffeured back to his home in Essex.
All four have denied the charges.
The Labour Party has already barred Mr Morley, Mr Chaytor and Mr Devine from standing at the next election. Lord Hanningfield said he would stand down as a Conservative spokesman in the Lords.
@Email:dsapsted@thenational.ae
What is blockchain?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
The biog
Name: Younis Al Balooshi
Nationality: Emirati
Education: Doctorate degree in forensic medicine at the University of Bonn
Hobbies: Drawing and reading books about graphic design
BLACKBERRY
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UFC Fight Night 2
1am – Early prelims
2am – Prelims
4am-7am – Main card
7:30am-9am – press cons
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
J%20Street%20Polling%20Results
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How to register as a donor
1) Organ donors can register on the Hayat app, run by the Ministry of Health and Prevention
2) There are about 11,000 patients in the country in need of organ transplants
3) People must be over 21. Emiratis and residents can register.
4) The campaign uses the hashtag #donate_hope
MATCH INFO
Inter Milan v Juventus
Saturday, 10.45pm (UAE)
Watch the match on BeIN Sports
