Politicians could face up to five years in prison if convicted

Sentencing Guidelines Council documents outline how those convicted of such crimes should receive a minimum of 18 months imprisonment.

In cases where between 20,000 and 100,000 is stolen in a pre-planned fraud judges should consider jail terms of between two and five years.

Scunthorpe MP and former agriculture minister Elliot Morley and Bury North MP David Chaytor are accused of claiming false expenses of more than 20,000.

Those convicted of stealing less than 20,000 in similar circumstances could face jail terms of up to three years.

Livingston MP Jim Devine is accused of falsely claiming expenses worth 8,745. The value of the case against Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield is not known.

Solicitor Jeremy Summers, of Russell Jones & Walker, said

: "The charges are likely to be vigorously defended and, perhaps anticipating this, the CPS has brought charges of false accounting, an offence which is sometimes viewed as being more easy to prosecute successfully.

"In the event that a conviction is secured, realistically the court will have to look at imposing a custodial sentence."

Legal commentator Ian Caplin said holding a public office and breach of trust would be additional aggravating factors.

"On conviction, just by virtue of holding that office, it certainly aggravates it and judges certainly would not rule out custody automatically," he said.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer said the four would be charged with breaking section 17 of the Theft Act 1968.

This focuses on criminal suspects who falsify documents and records with a view to making a gain, financially or otherwise.

The law states anyone convicted under this section of the Act could be jailed for up to seven years by a crown court judge.

The accused politicians will soon receive formal summonses ordering them to appear at City of Westminster magistrates' court next month.

In recent years judges have taken a harsh line when dealing with elected politicians and civil servants caught stealing public funds.

Last November, disgraced former UK Independence Party MEP Tom Wise was jailed for two years after fraudulently claiming 39,000 of parliamentary expenses.

A court heard that he boasted openly about "repatriating" money from Europe to Britain as he lodged 3,000-a-month claims for office staff.

The four facing criminal charges

LORD HANNINGFIELD

BARON Hanningfield of Chelmsford in the County of Essex – also known as Paul White – is a Conservative peer and has sat in the House of Lords since 1998, having been made a life peer.

He faces six charges of false accounting relating to overnight subsistence claims made to reimburse expenses incurred when sitting in the Lords. It is alleged he routinely claimed for such payments even when returning home to Essex.

He is alleged to have amassed numerous false payments between March 2006 and May 2009, expenses he allegedly knew he was not entitled to.

The 69-year-old was, until yesterday, his party's spokesman for transport, communities and local government in the Lords, but resigned when news of the prosecution broke. He was also his party's whip in the Lords between 2003 and 2007.

He also resigned as the leader of Essex County Council, to which he was first elected in 1970.

In 2009, he was awarded a "Rural Vision" award by the Countryside Alliance for his work promoting and protecting rural communities.

DAVID CHAYTOR

DAVID Chaytor, the Labour MP for Bury North since 1997, stands accused on three counts of false accounting dating back to 2005.

The 60-year-old MP is alleged to have dishonestly claimed 1,950 for IT services using falsified invoices in May 2006.

In addition, he faces prosecution for dishonestly claiming 12,925 for rent on a property in Regency Street, London, when he was in fact the owner of the property.

The third charge alleges that between September 2007 and January 2008 Mr Chaytor claimed 5,425 for renting a property in Bury, Lancashire that was actually owned by his mother.

Mr Chaytor, who referred himself to the parliamentary watchdog over the matter, has been deselected by the Labour Party for the coming general election, and was suspended from the party in May last year.

He was on the Commons' environmental audit and education and skills select committees.

ELLIOT MORLEY

A FORMER Labour minister, Elliot Morley is MP for Scunthorpe but will stand down at the coming election, after anger over his expenses claims led to him being deselected by his local party.

He is alleged to have dishonestly claimed mortgage expenses of 800 a month, totalling more than 30,000, on a property in Winterton, Lincolnshire.

The DPP accuses Mr Morley of claiming 14,428 in excess of his entitlement between April 2004 and February 2006, as well as 16,000 on the same property between March 2006 and November 2007, 18 months after the mortgage on the property was repaid.

He has already apologised for the claims, blaming "sloppy accounting", and denies the criminal charges that have now been brought.

The MP was also accused, although he has not been charged, of renting out a flat he designated as his own main residence to another Labour MP, Ian Cawsey, who named the property as his second home, allowing him to claim 1,000 a month.

JIM DEVINE

THE successor to the late Robin Cook in the Livingston Westminster constituency, Jim Devine is charged with two counts of false accounting over claims he made for cleaning and stationery expenses.

He had been widely expected to be charged in relation to claims made for shelving built on his behalf in the basement of a local pub, but it was confirmed yesterday the DPP is not to pursue this.

The DPP now accuses him of submitting false invoices totalling 3,240 for cleaning services in his second home between July 2008 and April 2009. They are believed to relate to a firm called Hygiene & Cleaning Services which provided him with "cleaning and minor maintenance".

Mr Devine, a former psychiatric nurse and Unison official, also faces criminal charges over the submission of invoices for office stationery. The MP's expenses file shows that he submitted duplicate claims for 2,400 and 3,105 in March and April 2009 under the terms of his communications allowance.

Mr Devine denies all the charges, though appeared to admit he had incorrectly claimed for stationery costs in an attempt to move money between two parliamentary allowances.