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Ex-Labour MP David Chaytor has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for making false parliamentary expenses claims totalling £18,350.
The former Bury North MP was the first politician to be convicted and sentenced over the expenses crisis which broke in May 2009.
He submitted bogus invoices which led to him receive £18,350 worth of payments he had not been entitled to.
Chaytor made the false claims in order to "siphon off" public money to which he was not entitled, prosecutors told the court today.
Last month, the former MP pleaded guilty to three charges of false accounting in relation to rent and claims for IT consultancy work that he had never been required to pay for.
Chaytor claimed £12,925 in rent for a property in Regency Street between September 2005 and September 2006, when he was in fact the owner.
He also claimed £5,425 between September 2007 and January 2008 for renting a property owned by his mother and £1,950 for IT services in May 2006 by using false invoices.
Chaytor is the first of three former MPs to face criminal trials to plead guilty.
Elliot Morley and Jim Devine face separate trials at Southwark Crown Court at a future date.
Following the sentence, a Labour Party spokesperson said: "David Chaytor had already been suspended from the Labour Party and following his custodial sentence he has now been excluded from the party."
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