Three former Labour MPs who were jailed for fiddling their expenses have been ordered to pay back a total of £125,000 – less than half of the money spent on their court cases.
But a fourth disgraced politician was spared any repayment on the grounds he is already bankrupt.
Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Eric Illsley, exposed for claiming too much on their Parliamentary allowances after the landmark investigation by The Daily Telegraph, were told by a judge they must give back their legal aid funds and contribute to prosecution costs.
They have already been denied the “parachute” payments given to most MPs when they leave Westminster, and forced to pay back their fraudulently claimed expenses.
Mr Justice Saunders told Southwark Crown Court: “As a starting point there is no reason why a convicted defendant should not pay costs. It is their unlawful behaviour which has caused the prosecuting authorities to incur expense and ultimately, if not paid for by the defendant, will be met by the taxpayer.
“At a time when there is concern at the size of the legal aid expenditure there is no reason why the tax payer should pay for the legal representations of people who can afford to pay themselves.”
However he said they should not have to pay for the costs of their unsuccessful challenge, taken to the highest courts in the land, when they had argued that they were exempt from prosecution under Parliamentary privilege.
“Although the defendants were unsuccessful in all courts that does not mean that it was not an important point of law.
“Where in the criminal jurisdiction a case raises a point of law of general public importance in my judgement it may not be reasonable to require the defendants to pay the costs of their part in establishing this important point of law of public importance.”
Until the scandal was uncovered by this newspaper in 2009, MPs were all paid more than £60,000 a year and under a lax self-regulated system were allowed to claim tens of thousands pounds more for the upkeep of their second homes and offices, often without submitting receipts.
Several politicians were investigated by the Metropolitan Police and Chaytor, the former MP for Bury North, Lancs, was jailed for 18 months in January after admitting submitting false invoices totalling £18,350 on the first day of his trial.
He was told to pay back prosecution costs of £23,176 and legal aid of £23,036.
Illsley, the former MP for Barnsley Central, was jailed for 12 months in February after pleading guilty to claiming £14,500 of fraudulent second home expenses.
He was told to pay prosecution costs of £12,178 and legal aid costs of £10,909.
Morley, a former environment minister who claimed £31,000 on a mortgage that had already been paid off, was jailed for 16 months in May.
He was ordered to pay back prosecution costs of £23,176 and legal aid costs of £33,005.
In total they were told to pay back £125,481 of the costs of the money spent on their prosecution and defence cases, which totalled almost £350,000.
Devine, the former Labour MP for Livingston and the only one whose case went to a jury trial, was jailed for 16 months in May for submitting false invoices totalling £8,385.
But the court was told that any repayment order would only deprive his other creditors of the money he owed them. He has not paid Parliament back his expenses either.
The judge said: “It seems unlikely that he will have anything left by the time his debts are paid off... It would be pointless to make an order for prosecution costs against him.”
None of the four former MPs, who were all released from jail early under a curfew scheme, appeared in court on Thursday.
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