David Chaytor has the dubious honour of being first member of Parliament to be sentenced following the United Kingdom Parliamentary expenses scandal of 2009.
On 2 June 2009, he announced that he would not be standing for Parliament at the next general election. On 3 December 2010 he pleaded guilty to charges of false accounting in relation to Parliamentary expenses claims and he was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment on 7 January 2011. Chaytor was released from prison on 26 May 2011 under the conditions of Home Detention Curfew.
On 16 May 2009, following his self-referral to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards for claiming nearly £13,000 in mortgage expenses on a home on which the mortgage had already been paid, Chaytor was suspended by the Labour party, and on 2 June 2009 he announced that he would be stepping down as a member of parliament at the next general election. Shortly after this the Labour Party NEC's Special Endorsements Panel barred him from standing for election as a Labour Party candidate. The general election took place in June 2010, and Chaytor did not stand for election.
On 5 February 2010, it was announced that he would be charged with offences under section 17 of the Theft Act 1968 relating to false accounting in relation to claims for Parliamentary expenses and on 27 May he and other politicians appeared at Southwark Crown Court for a preliminary hearing.
Following the failure of an attempt by the group to claim parliamentary privilege (dismissed either in the Court of Appeal or in United Kingdom Supreme Court), on 3 December 2010 he immediately pleaded guilty to three counts of false accounting involving approximately £18,000 and was released on bail until a sentencing hearing in January 2011. Among the charges was that he had claimed rent on a flat in Westminster which he in fact owned, using a fake tenancy agreement.
On 7 January 2011, Chaytor was sentenced by Mr Justice Saunders sitting in the Crown Court at Southwark to 18 months' imprisonment.
On 23 February 2011 it was announced that following legal advice, Chaytor was seeking leave to appeal against the length of his sentence. The application was heard by the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) on 22 March 2011 and refused on 23 March 2011, when the Lord Chief Justice described the behaviour referred to in the charges as "calculating", with the element of dishonesty being "not simply inflated claims for expenses, but rather the careful preparation of bogus claims". The primary grounds of appeal (and the main mitigation in the original hearing) – that according to the UK Parliament's 'Green Book' expenses guidelines, Chaytor's situation would have entitled him to claim more than he had done but on a different property – was dismissed as not relevant.
On 26 May 2011, Chaytor was released from prison under the normal Home Detention Curfew licensing conditions.