Jim Devine freed from jail after 4 months

Former Labour MP jailed for 16 months for expenses fraud in March is released after serving a quarter of his sentence Jim Devine, the former Labour MP jailed for 16 months in March for expenses fraud has been released after serving a quarter of his sentence. Devine was freed early, from Standford Hill Prison in Kent, under the home detention scheme. He will remain tagged and spend the last eight months of his sentence on probation. Devine, who had been MP for Livingston, was found guilty of a gross breach of trust for claiming over £8,000 in parliamentary expenses, some for cleaning and stationery. The trial judge Mr Justice Saunders said Devine had been “lying in significant parts of the evidence he gave”. But critics saidhis release would do little for confidence in the criminal justice system. Emma Boon, from The TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the early release “makes his sentence look like a hollow gesture and will do nothing to help restore public faith in parliament”. Devine, a former psychiatric nurse and union organiser, has since been declared bankrupt. He is the third former MP jailed over the parliamentary expenses scandal to be released, following Eric Illsley and David Chaytor. A fourth former MP, Elliot Morley, a one-time climate change minister, remains in prison, along with Conservative peers Lord Taylor and Lord Hanningfield. Illsley, 56, who was jailed for 12 months in February after pleading guilty to £14,000 in expenses fraud, was released in May after three months behind bars. Chaytor, 61, served four-and-a-half months of his 18-month sentence after falsely claiming over £22,000 of taxpayers’ money. Devine was election agent to Robin Cook, the former foreign secretary and one of the Labour party’s leading thinkers. Devine was best man at Cook’s wedding to second wife Gaynor and he then went on to succeed him as MP for Livingston when the Cook died from a heart attack in August 2005. Devine used his maiden speech in the Commons to pay tribute to the Labour politician as “the outstanding parliamentarian of his generation” and admitted he had “big shoes to fill”. Devine had told his Southwark crown court trial that he was acting on advice given with a “nod and a wink” by a fellow MP in a House of Commons bar but his defence was rejected by the jury. MPs’ expenses Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk

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