A JUDGE has given a supervision and treatment order to expense-fiddling former Labour MP Margaret Moran, conceding some people may think she had “got away with it”.
However, Mr Justice Saunders, at Southwark Crown Court, said all the evidence in the case was that Moran, who does not receive a criminal conviction, was unfit to plead because of a depressive illness.
He gave her the two-year order for fiddling expenses to receive more than £53,000 from the taxpayer.
Moran (57) who represented Luton South for 13 years, claimed nearly her entire annual allowance in one bogus expense entry and forged invoices for more than £20,000 for non-existent goods and services. The disgraced former MP’s claims were the largest amount uncovered in the MPs’ expenses scandal.
Dr Simon Kelly, from the Priory Hospital in Southampton, said Moran was “severely ill” and had been “deeply distressed” by a newspaper article which had pictured her at a pub.
Asked how the November 25 article had affected her illness, Dr Kelly said: “She experienced panic attacks, nightmares and believes she is going to be doorstepped at any point.”
Mr Justice Saunders said two distinguished psychiatrists instructed by the defence had concluded she was unfit to plead and a psychiatrist instructed by the prosecution broadly agreed.
He said: “There will inevitably be feelings among some that Mrs Moran has ‘got away with it’.
“All the evidence in the case was that she was unfit to plead.
“If I had reached any other conclusion my decision would have been perverse and would inevitably have been successfully appealed.”