Former Labour MP, Jim Devine [er, actually meant Eric Illsley], starts his 12 month sentence for false accounting today.
He might want to recall the words of his predecessor, Horatio Bottomley MP, who was rather more harshly punished for his fraud:
[Horatio Bottomley] started his most ambitious project, The John Bull Victory Bond Club, a savings bank which took deposits from small savers and supposedly lent the money to the Government. In 1921, the scheme was insolvent, and Bottomley was arrested and charged with fraud. After a long trial in which Bottomley vigorously defended himself, he was found guilty and sentenced to seven years hard labour in Wormwood Scrubs.
A story goes that on one occasion, when Bottomley was sewing mailbags, he was visited by the prison chaplain who asked “Sewing, Bottomley?” to which Bottomley replied “No, reaping!”
