Shamed MP admits greed as he starts jail for fraud

Lawyers for the 55-year-old admitted his life was ruined yesterday but said he was genuinely remorseful after regularly submitting inflated claims for expenses on his second home, in London.

Over three years, the former Labour MP for Barnsley Central – whose resignation on Tuesday has sparked a by-election – was paid £39,204.25 in expenses despite having only incurred £25,000 in costs for council tax, telephone equipment, utility bills and service charges.

He was spared a longer sentence because Judge Mr Justice Saunders said his offence was less serious than that of another ex-Labour MP, David Chaytor, was jailed for 18 months after fabricating invoices.

Sentencing Illsley at Southwark Crown Court yesterday, a month after he pleaded guilty to three charges of theft by false accounting, the Judge said: “It is vital that people feel able to trust our legislators and their use of public funds. Re-building that trust is likely to be a long process. Of course, Mr Illsley only bears a small part of the responsibility for that loss of trust but it is a significant part.”

The court heard Illsley, a former official at the National Union of Mineworkers who had been MP for the seat since 1987, had failed in an attempt to have his case halted on the grounds that he would not get a fair trial, despite knowing he was guilty of the charges.

But he was said to have been “disarmingly frank” about his crimes to probation officers, telling them greed was to blame because he did not need the extra money and had not indulged in a lavish lifestyle.

William Coker QC, defending Illsley, said: “These convictions have of course ruined him. At his age, he sees very limited opportunities to make something of his life in work in the future. But he accepts, as he must, that ruin is what he deserves – the publicity, the humiliation and the shame.

“It is a matter of simply physics – the higher a man is before he falls, the more painful his contact with the ground.”

Mr Coker also denied that Illsley had been a whistleblower who had raised questions over other MPs’ claims, while the Judge said references had delivered a glowing report of his character and said he had “clearly done a great deal of good”.