DISGRACED Elliot Morley yesterday became the first former minister to be jailed for cheating his expenses.

The shady ex-MP abused his allowances by fleecing £30,428 in bogus mortgage payments.

As an environment minister in Tony Blair's government, he is the most high-profile politician to be jailed since the expenses scandal rocked Westminster.

Sentencing Morley to 16 months' prison yesterday, Mr Justice Saunders accused him of "blatant dishonesty". He said: "I am satisfied from the nature of the mortgage transactions that the excessive claims were made deliberately.

"He has thrown away his good name and good character."

Morley, 58, pleaded guilty last month to two false accounting charges relating to his home in Winterton, near Scunthorpe, North Lincs, between 2004 and 2007.

He made 19 excessive mortgage claims worth £15,200 to which he was not entitled. And despite paying off the loan on his home in 2006, he continued to claim £800 a month – deviously raking in £16,800.

Morley, who was MP for Scun-thorpe since 1987 before stepping down at last year's election, showed no emotion as he was jailed at London's Southwark crown court.

Matthew Sinclair, of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This sentence sends a clear message that even a former minister is not above the law."

Labour said Morley would now be excluded. The Party's David Chaytor, Eric Illsley and Jim Devine have also been jailed over expenses fraud.