Jim Devine MP, David Chaytor MP, Elliot Morley MP and Conservative counterpart Lord Hanningfield have pleaded not guilty to charges of fake accounting. Photograph: PA
Three Labour MPs and a Conservative counterpart charged with burglary over their losses claims are to quarrel to keep their cases out of the rapist courts by attempting to beg a 320-year-old law safeguarding them underneath parliamentary privilege.
Elliot Morley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Lord Hanningfield appeared yesterday at City of Westminster magistrates justice to beg not guilty to charges of fake accounting underneath the Theft Act 1968.
The cases were committed to Southwark climax justice after lawyers argued they lifted issues of "high inherent importance". If convicted, the 4 face a limit judgment of 7 years" imprisonment.
Julian Knowles, representing the 3 MPs, stressed that the men were not observant they were on top of the law. "That would be utterly wrong." But, he added, "parliamentary payoff is piece of the law, and it is for council to ask the law in their cases".
The 3 MPs stood together in the organic reinforced potion wharf of Court One at the Horseferry Road building, a short travel from the Palace of Westminster, for their 15-minute appearance. A ask that they be authorised to sojourn outward the wharf was refused by district decider Timothy Workman, though he did determine that their addresses should not be review out.
Lord Hanningfield, who gave his name as "Paul Edward Winston Lord Hanningfield, formerly White", appeared alone rught away after them.
Knowles pronounced that the 3 MPs "unequivocally and resolutely say their ignorance of the charges opposite them". Referring to the 1689 Bill of Rights, creatively written to strengthen leisure of speech, he pronounced they confirmed "that to take to justice them in the rapist courts for their parliamentary activities would transgress the element of the subdivision of powers, that is one of the beliefs that underpins the UK"s inherent structure.
"The element of the subdivision of powers equates to that whatever make a difference arises connected with the operative of council should be dealt with by parliament, and not elsewhere, and should be dealt with in a demeanour that is unchanging with the approach alternative members have been treated."
He combined that parliamentary payoff meant "proceedings in council cannot be impeached or questioned in any justice or place outward of parliament. These beliefs meant that it is for the House of Commons alone to confirm either the control of Mr Morley, Mr Chaytor and Mr Devine has been such as to call for sanction."
Morley, 57, a former cultivation apportion and MP for Scunthorpe, is purported to have dishonestly claimed £30,428 some-more than he was entitled to in second-home losses on a residence in Winterton, nearby Scunthorpe, in in between 2004 and 2007 towards a debt that was paid off.
Chaytor, 60, MP for Bury North, faces charges that he claimed roughly £13,000 in rent in 2005 and 2006 on a London prosaic that he owned, as well as £5,425 in 2007 and 2008 to rent a skill in Lancashire owned by his mother. He is additionally purported to have used fake invoices to explain £1,950 for IT services in 2006.
Devine, 56, MP for Livingston, is purported to have claimed £3,240 for cleaning services and £5,505 for stationery, utilizing fake invoices in 2008 and 2009.
All 3 have been barred from station for Labour in the stirring ubiquitous election.
Hanningfield, 69, who was dangling from the parliamentary Conservative celebration and stood down as personality of Essex county council, pleaded not guilty to 6 charges relating to claims for overnight allowances, trimming from £154 to £172, from the House of Lords in in between 2006 and 2009 when annals allegedly show he was driven to his home nearby Chelmsford.
The decider concluded with the defendants" focus for the cases to be listened at climax court. All were expelled on umbrella bail to crop up at Southwark climax justice on thirty March.
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