Moran fiddled expenses, jury rules

Nov 13 2012

Former Labour MP Margaret Moran fiddled her expenses claims to receive more than £53,000, a jury has ruled.

The 57-year-old claimed nearly her entire annual allowance in one bogus expenses entry and forged invoices for more than £20,000 of non-existent goods and services.

Moran, who served as MP for Luton South from 1997 until the 2010 election, was found to have falsely claimed around £60,000 in parliamentary expenses between 2004 and 2008, of which she received £53,000.

Jurors at Southwark Crown Court in London were unable to return a guilty verdict after it was ruled that Moran was unfit to stand trial for mental health reasons.

Instead, in a trial of issue, the jury found she had committed 15 counts of false accounting and six counts of using a false instrument over the claims for parliamentary expenses.