Former MP did fiddle her expenses

From a glamourous ambitious politician to a disgraced former MP, found to have cheated the public purse of thousands of pounds, Margaret Moran's fall from grace has been complete and devastating.

It was May 1997 when she was first elected as MP for Luton South, one of the so called Blair babes.

Today a jury found the former Labour MP received more than £53,000 of taxpayers money she wasn't entitled to.

The court heard she altered invoices, double claimed some expenses and even made-up completely fake invoices to claim for money that she'd never paid out.

The claims ranged from £47 for printing, almost £2,700 for new carpets, £15,000 for a new boiler and £22,500 to treat dry rot at her Southampton home

Margaret Moran wasn't seen at Westminster after reports of her expenses hit the headlines in May 2009, controversially appearing only on a TV programme looking for lobbying work, she was kicked out of the Labour party though she remained MP for Luton South until the general election in 2010.

At a earlier court hearing Margaret Moran appeared distressed and unrecognisable, and in April she was judged unfit to stand trial, medical experts agreeing she is suffering from extreme anxiety and depression, exasperated by the ongoing legal proceedings. It meant this case has been conducted in her absence.

She is the 7th politician found in court to have fiddled parliamentary expenses, others including Lord Hanningfield have served prison sentences, that is not an option in this case but the judge will decide at a later date how to deal with the former Labour MP, who falsely claimed thousands of pounds of taxpayers money.