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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/mps-deny-advising-devine-on-claims.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Two former colleagues have denied advising Jim Devine on expenses claims" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-mps-deny-advising-devine-on-claims.jpg" alt="Two former colleagues have denied advising Jim Devine on expenses claims"/></a></p>
<p>Two MPs did not advise a former colleague accused of fiddling his expenses to take cash from an allowance to pay his staff, a court has been told.</p>
<p>Former Labour backbencher Jim Devine claims he had a conversation with Tom Watson and Steve McCabe in the House of Commons Strangers Bar in which they told him he could use a communications allowance to cover staffing costs.</p>
<p>But the two MPs told Southwark Crown Court that no such discussion took place.</p>
<p>Devine, 57, who held a seat in the House of Commons for Livingston, West Lothian, is on trial for falsely claiming almost £9,000 from the public purse.</p>
<p>Tom Watson, MP for West Bromwich East, said he hardly knows Devine.</p>
<p>The former defence minister also told the court that if anyone came to him with a question about expenses, he would point them in the direction of the fees office, rather than give them advice.</p>
<p>The prosecution barrister asked the MP if he ever told Devine he could use money from his communications allowance &#8220;in order to fund staffing costs&#8221;. He said: &#8220;No.&#8221;</p>
<p>Devine is on trial facing two charges of false accounting.</p>
<p>The first count alleges that, between July 2008 and May 2009, Mr Devine dishonestly claimed £3,240 for cleaning services from Tom O&#8217;Donnell Hygiene and Cleaning Services. The second count alleges that between March 2009 and April 2009, Mr Devine dishonestly claimed £5,505 for stationery from Armstrong Printing using false invoices.</p>
<p>Mr Devine, of West Main Street, Bathgate, West Lothian, denies both charges.</p>
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