Post by Focus on Mar 23, 2013 14:35:36 GMT
Shamed MP moved to 'holiday camp' prison.
SHAMED ex-Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne was last night inside one of Britain’s cushiest jails — where prisoners are not even locked in their cells.
The ex-Lib Dem MP, 58, was taken to minimum-security HMP Leyhill, Gloucs, after just seven days in grim Wandsworth.
Switch ... Chris Huhne
It will be his home for the rest of his eight-month term.
Last night the source said: “Huhne will think he’s walked out of hell straight into heaven.
Leafy ... HMP Leyhill has farms and a garden in its sprawling grounds
“Leyhill is like a holiday camp compared to Wandsworth with acres of grounds to wander about in. It’s a completely different world.”
Disgraced Huhne — once tipped as Lib Dem leader — was jailed alongside ex-wife Vicky Pryce on March 11.
Both were handed the same sentence over the former MP’s plot to persuade Pryce, 60, to take his speeding points and spare him a 2003 road ban.
Trial judge Mr Justice Sweeney said during sentencing in London that Huhne had lied “again and again”.
The politician was taken from court to category B Wandsworth in South West London. But after just seven days, the decision was made to move him to Leyhill and he made the switch last Monday.
Bleak ... imposing Wandsworth jail
We can reveal Huhne is being held on the jail’s B wing, which has two landings just for cons aged 50 and over.
Leyhill, which holds around 500 male lags, was a US hospital base in World War Two and boasts farms and an ornamental garden in its sprawling grounds.
Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick dubbed the surroundings “impressive” during an inspection last year.
Cell doors are not locked and cons can take classes ranging from pottery and woodwork to cookery and horticulture.
The jail, which has dozens of older inmates, even has a day centre called the Lobster Pot — set up by officials to help the over-50s cope with prison.
Change ... Huhne moved to Leyhill from Wandsworth
But a source said: “Although it might seem Huhne is getting preferential treatment, nothing could be further from the truth. The switch is entirely typical procedure for any white-collar criminal. He is no danger to the public and poses little risk of escape, which is why he’s ended up there.”
Others to serve sentences at leafy Leyhill include corrupt top cop Ali Dizaei and former EastEnders actor Leslie Grantham — a convicted murderer.
Rapist Iorworth Hoare won a £7.2million lotto jackpot while on day release in 2004.
Soccer goalie Luke McCormick, whose drunk driving left two young boys dead in a smash, also served time there.
In 2011 The Sun told how jail chiefs blew £4,500 repairing snooker and pool tables — and then tried to hide it.
And in 2006 it was revealed that more than one Leyhill inmate a week was absconding.
Last Sunday we revealed how Pryce had been moved from North London’s Holloway jail to cushy East Sutton Park prison near Maidstone, Kent.
Meanwhile the Attorney General has rejected a call to refer the former couple’s “unduly lenient” sentences to the Court of Appeal to be increased. Tory backbencher David Burrowes had written to Dominic Grieve QC earlier this month questioning the eight-month terms.
He insisted Huhne’s status as an ex-Cabinet minister and Pryce’s as a government economist should have been treated as aggravating factors.
But Mr Grieve concluded any challenge to the sentences was unlikely to succeed. He said: “I do not think the court will increase them.”
JAILED Pryce may be stripped of an honor awarded by the Queen.
Pryce, 60, became a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 2009.
But Whitehall rules say anyone bringing the honors system into disrepute could lose their title.
Shamed ... Pryce
Labour MP Andrew Gwynne has asked that the Honors Forfeiture Committee consider Pryce’s case.
Of course he has, he's a f**king politician!! -- Ppffttt! - Fx
