Three British MPs and a Conservative peer will be prosecuted for dishonestly submitting expense claims.

The three Labour Party MPs are Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor; the fourth accused is Conservative peer Lord Hanningfield. The Crown Prosecution Service says there is sufficient evidence to bring criminal charges.

The four were discredited during the parliamentary expenses scandal which emerged last May. MPs and peers were found to have declared a wide range of expenses, from cat food to security systems, and from diapers to a duck pen. A report published on Thursday shows that 390 politicians claimed excessive expenses, and will have to pay back a total of 1.3 million euros.

The report says it is difficult to establish whether the politicians broke the law, because of the vagueness of the rules regarding expenses. However, the four who have been charged clearly crossed the line: one of them even claimed mortgage interest on a property which had been fully paid for.

Photo: Westminster Palace, the seat of the two houses of parliament of the United Kingdom (Wikipedia)