Elliot Morley jailed for 16 months

[Hopeless Romantic]

Former environment minister sentenced at Southwark crown court after pleading guilty to claiming more than £30,000 in bogus mortgage payments

Elliot Morley has been jailed for 16 months, becoming the first former minister to be sentenced in the Westminster expenses scandal.

Morley, a former environment minister, was sentenced at Southwark crown court in London. Last month, he pleaded guilty to claiming more than £30,000 in bogus mortgage payments.

Passing sentence, Mr Justice Saunders said Morley was guilty of "blatant dishonesty" and had "thrown away his good name and character".

He told the court: "I am satisfied, from the nature of the mortgage transactions and the correspondence, that the excessive claims were made deliberately and are not explicable even in part by oversight."

A Labour party spokesman said: "Elliot Morley had already been suspended from the Labour party and, following his custodial sentence, he has now been excluded from the party."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/may/20/mps-expenses-elliot-morley-sentenced