Three MPs Jailed For Cheating Expenses Ordered To Pay £125,000 Costs

Why Does He Look So Miserable?

Former MPs David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Eric Illsley have been landed with massive bills to repay legal aid and prosecution costs following their convictions for fiddling their expenses.

A judge at Southwark Crown Court ordered that Chaytor, 62, former MP for Bury North, and Morley, a former environment minister and ex-Scunthorpe MP, should each pay prosecution costs of £23,176, with Illsley, ex-MP for Barnsley Central, ordered to pay £12,178.

Morley, 59, was ordered to pay £33,005 legal aid costs, with Chaytor ordered to pay £23,036 and Illsley, 56, ordered to pay £10,909.

No orders were made against Jim Devine, 58, former Labour MP for Livingston, after the court was told that he was bankrupt.

"In the case of Devine different considerations apply. He is bankrupt," Mr Justice Saunders said.

"It seems unlikely that he will have anything left by the time all his debts are paid off."