Former Defra Minister jailed for 16 months

20 May 2011 | By Jack Davies, Alistair Driver

FORMER Defra and MAFF Minister Elliot Morley has been jailed for 16 months after he was found guilty of claiming some £32,000 in bogus mortgage payments.

Mr Morley becomes the first former Minister to be jailed following the expenses scandal which rocked Westminster last year.

The sentence was handed down at Southwark Crown Court today after the shamed former MP had pleaded guilty to receiving £15,200 more than he was entitled to in ‘inflated’ mortgage claims and of submitting £16,800 in ‘phantom’ mortgage interest claims after he had paid off the mortgage on the property

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Mr Morley was guilty of ‘blatant dishonesty’ and said he had been satisfied the claims had been made ‘deliberately’ and were not a genuine mistake as Mr Morley once claimed.

Mr Morley, 58, had been an MP for Scunthorpe for 23 years until he was barred from standing again in 2010 because of the expenses scandal.

Three former Labour MPs are already serving jail sentences over expenses claims, two of which David Chaytor, former MP for Bury North, and Eric Ilsley, former MP for Barnsley Central, pleaded guilty. The other, Jim Devine, former MP for Livingston, stood trial and was jailed for 16 months after being found guilty last month.

When the allegations against him first surfaced as part of the wider investigation into MPs’ expenses, Mr Morley claimed he had made a ‘genuine mistake’.

In a joint statement in February 2010, Mr Morley, Mr Chaytor and Mr Devine said: “We totally refute any charges that we have committed an offence and we will defend our position robustly.”

They later told a Westminster magistrate’s court they would fight the charges.

The three former MPs tried to avoid criminal trials by arguing that their cases should be covered by Parliamentary privilege and therefore heard by Parliament, not the criminal courts. But the Supreme Court dismissed this argument in December, ensuring they would face criminal trials.

Following Mr Morley’s guilty plea on Thursday, the Crown Prosecution Service said his behaviour had been ‘blatantly dishonest and cannot be excused’.

Mr Morley filled various Ministerial roles at MAFF and Defra between 1997 and 2006, covering at various times animal health and welfare, the environment and climate change. Prior to 1997 he had spent a number of years as a Shadow MAFF Minister.

Readers' comments (3)

  • Anonymous | 20 May 2011 3:57 pm

    Great News. Useless Bloke

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  • Captain Bryn Wayt | 20 May 2011 4:58 pm

    I'm glad he has been jailed - pity it was not for longer.

    Let's go back to FMD2001 - he was ignorant then, and made an astronomical mess of the whole affair.

    I sent an email to some MP's more than a year ago about Morley - they never acknowledged it, nor bothered to reply; typical.

    From: Bryn Wayt
    Sent: 10 February 2010 21:27
    To: CAMERON, David; Rt Hon Gordon Brown; HENDRY, Charles
    Cc: Press - Simon Jenkins (The Guardian); Press - Richard Littlejohn (Daily Mail); Press - Chris Booker
    Subject: Fw: Morley. A greedy pig

    Dear Readers,
    I am not in the slightest displeased that Mr ELLIOT MORLEY has been caught allegedly (cough... cough) for dishonesty raking in money that he was not entitled to. I consider him to be a greedy pig, who for years without the slightest twinge of conscience, sucked every ounce of money off the taxpayer from every "expenses" excuse he could muster. He says he employed his wife as a, "part-time assistant secretary" (Junior Secretary pay range of course!). It's funny though, that over the last 7 years Morley's "Staffing" claims amounted to £445,448 !
    That's an average of £63,635/year.
    He claimed £1,557 for 4 consecutive years for Computer equipment (not one pound more or less). Maybe he eats computers and that made him fat?
    The fat man claimed the maximum £400/month for years..... for food!
    Anybody who is personally on shedfuls of money/year should NOT ask the taxpayer for his food money! Look back to 2000 then up to today what BASIC pay this oaf was paid. The current annual salary for an MP is £64,766
    Ref: http://www.parliament.uk/documents/upload/M05.pdf#page=16
    Morley's basic pay kitty
    -----------------------------------
    [there was more, but I won't bother feeding the fire]
    ===========
    Well done to the TELEGRAPH for hooking these greedy, unworthy, dishonourable, creeps. The keep net is waiting!
    I hope MORLEY ends up in jail.
    Captain Bryn Wayt
    ---------------------------
    That he denied all the charges and then sought a Parliamentry fox-hole going back centuries wasted even more of the taxpayer's money - typical of the arrogance bred from high office. 'They' did not even want to stand in the dock, as if 'they' were superior beings - not any more egh!
    Now he knows truth will prevail.

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  • Newt | 21 May 2011 8:53 am

    Excellent news, now how about the others?

    What about restitution? Drug dealers have their assets seized, how about thieving politicians?

    Unsuitable or offensive? Report this comment

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