MP Jim Devine found guilty of fiddling expenses

Former Livingston Labour MP Jim Devine was today found guilty of fiddling his expenses.

Devine, 57, submitted false invoices for cleaning and printing work totalling 8,385.

He was found guilty by a jury at Southwark Crown Court of two charges of false accounting. He was cleared of one other count relating 360 for cleaning work.

The former backbencher, of West Main Street, Bathgate, West Lothian, was the first MP to stand trial in the wake of the expenses scandal.

The jury of six men and six women took two hours and 45 minutes to agree with the prosecution that on the two counts Devine showed a "woeful inadequacy" in abiding by the core principles expected of MPs.

Devine was granted unconditional bail and will be sentenced in due course.