Former Labour minister Elliot Morley has been sentenced to 16 months in jail for dishonestly claiming more than £30,000 in parliamentary expenses.
Elliot Morley was a government minister under Tony Blair's governmentHe pleaded guilty last month to making excessive claims for mortgage costs from 2004 to 2007 and claiming for a mortgage that had been paid off.
Morley, MP for Scunthorpe since 1987, stepped down at the general election.
As a former environment minister, he is the most senior politician to plead guilty to expenses fraud.
When the allegations against him first surfaced, he claimed it had been a genuine mistake and said he would prove that he was not guilty of deception.
But the Crown Prosecution Service said Morley's behaviour had been "blatantly dishonest".
The 58-year-old pleaded guilty to two charges of false accounting under the Theft Act.
He admitted to receiving £15,200 more than he was entitled to in inflated mortgage claims and of submitting £16,800 of claims towards a mortgage on a property near Scunthorpe - after it had been paid off.
He wrongly filled out a total of 40 forms relating to mortgage payments.
Sentencing him, Mr Justice Saunders said Morley had been "a positive force for good" during his time as a minister and had done "a great deal to promote the green agenda".
The judge described it as "a tragic case" for the defendant and said Morley had "thrown away his good name and good character".
Now if Elliot had been gay would he have been in court anyway?
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