Eric Illsley, another thieving former Labour MP pleads guilty:

MP Eric Illsley has admitted dishonestly claiming more than £14,000 in expenses, becoming the first sitting politician to be convicted over the scandal that has rocked British politics.
The member for Barnsley Central pleaded guilty to three charges of false accounting over claims for council tax, maintenance, repairs and utility bills for his second home in Kennington, south London.

Illsley was re-elected in May as MP for the Labour party in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, but was suspended from the party after being charged and now sits as an independent.
The 55-year-old was due to stand trial at Southwark Crown Court in London after previously denying dishonestly claiming more than £25,000.

But he changed his plea on Tuesday, admitting wrongly claiming a revised sum of about £14,500 between 2005 and 2008.
During the five-minute hearing, Illsley spoke only to confirm his pleas. The prosecutor accepted the revised figure and the judge ruled that sentencing would take place in four weeks.

Simon Clements, head of the CPS special crime division, said: "Eric Illsley, the MP for Barnsley Central, has admitted taking more than £14,000 of the public's money that he was not entitled to.
"This was a significant sum of money and the grossly inflated claims he submitted could not be attributed to an oversight or accounting error -- indeed he claimed that the expenses system was a way of supplementing members' salaries.

"By his guilty pleas he has accepted that he was dishonest in making these claims. As an elected representative, Eric Illsley took advantage of the trust placed in him by his constituents to act honourably on their behalf.
"Instead, he siphoned off public money into his own pockets and betrayed those who rightly expected the highest standards of integrity from him as a Member of Parliament."

Dozens of MPs were caught up in the expenses scandal , but Illsley was the only one of three politicians charged over their expenses who is still serving as an MP.
If he receives a sentence of 12 months or more he will be disqualified as an MP under the Representation of the People Act 1981 and a by-election will be held in his constituency.

Admin note:
I dont know what this If he receives a sentence of 12 months or more he will be disqualified as an MP. 
He should be dismissed now and banned from parliament for ever, no matter how long his sentence.

I as a taxpayer and voter demand there be a by-election in Barnsley Central.

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