LONDON (AFP) – Disgraced former MP Jim Devine, convicted for fiddling his expenses, was formally declared bankrupt on Wednesday.
A request for "sequestration" -- the Scottish legal term for personal bankruptcy -- was granted to the former Labour MP at Livingston Sheriff Court.
The 57-year-old, who represented the Scottish constituency of Livingston, is currently awaiting sentence after being found guilty earlier this month of submitting false invoices for cleaning and printing worth £8,385.
He could be jailed for up to seven years when sentenced next month.
Wednesday's insolvency order comes after he failed to pay his former office manager Marion Kinley £35,000 for unfair dismissal, owed since a tribunal judge ruled in her favour in October.
Devine had tried to claim during his expenses trial that Kinley paid herself more than £5,000 from his staffing allowance without his knowledge.
Four politicians have now been convicted over the expenses scandal, two of whom have been jailed.
David Chaytor, the former Labour MP for Bury North, on Wednesday launched an appeal against his 18-month sentence for fraudulently claiming more than £20,000.
Another ex-Labour MP, Eric Illsley, was sentenced to a year in jail earlier this month after pleading guilty to dishonestly claiming more than £14,000.
The former Conservative peer Lord Taylor is awaiting sentencing, having been found guilty of falsely claiming £11,277.
