New York TIMES / February 6, 2010 Four British Lawmakers Charged Over Expenses By JOHN F. BURNS and ALAN COWELL LONDON — In the latest twist of a scandal that has stained the reputation of British Parliament members with claims of widespread fraud on their expense accounts, the country’s chief prosecutor said Friday that criminal charges, including false accounting, would be brought against four legislators.
The announcement, by Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, was made after 392 current and former legislators were ordered Thursday to repay the equivalent of $1.7 million, a small amount by the standards of, say, bankers’ bonuses, but enough to add to the continuing embarrassment for Parliament. Led by The Telegraph, newspapers last year regaled their readers with articles about legislators’ use of their parliamentary expense accounts for questionable mortgage payments and items like a floating house for pet ducks and repairs to a clock tower at a country mansion. For many Britons, the expenditures created an impression of profligacy when many taxpayers were reeling from the global financial crisis and a recession from which Britain has only just emerged. Investigators’ files on six legislators were sent to the Crown Prosecution Service by the police late last year. Mr. Starmer identified the legislators to be charged as three members of the House of Commons from the governing Labour Party — Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine — and a peer from the opposition Conservatives in the House of Lords, Lord Hanningfield. -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
