Expense-fiddling ex-MP Jim Devine is declared bankrupt

DISGRACED former Labour MP Jim Devine was declared bankrupt today.

Solicitors acting for Marion Kinley, Devine's former office manager, were granted a sequestration order against the expenses cheat.

Sheriff Gerard MacMillan approved the order during a brief hearing at Livingston Sheriff Court.

Neither Ms Kinley nor Devine were present.

The legal ruling means that Devine's home in Blackburn, West Lothian, and any other assets he owns will be put in the hands of a trustee.

He is also believed to own a house in London, where he stayed while working as an MP.

In addition, the insolvency order will cover any payments such as the so-called "resettlement grant" the former MP may be due from the House of Commons.

Ownership of all his assets will now pass to Edinburgh-based insolvency practitioner Matt P. Henderson.

Mr Henderson works for Johnston Carmichael Chartered Accountants, which specialises in cases ranging from personal insolvency to major Corporate Recovery work.

Ms Kinley, 47, went to court after Devine failed to hand over a single penny of 35,000 compensation he was ordered to pay her by a judge.

An employment tribunal ruled last year that Devine had bullied and harassed Ms Kinley.

She ran his constituency office in West Lothian following his election to parliament in 2005.

She won her claim for constructive dismissal.

Devine faces a lengthy jail term after being convicted of false accounting by fiddling his Parliamentary expenses by more than 8,000,

The Labour Party barred him from standing as a candidate at the last general election following reports about his expenses.