FORMER East Lancashire MP David Chaytor has been released from prison after serving just a quarter of his 18-month sentence, sources said today.

David Chaytor, whose Bury North constituency covered Ramsbottom, spent four-and-a-half months behind bars after admitting he fiddled his parliamentary expenses to falsely claim more than £22,000 of taxpayers' money.

Chaytor, 61, falsely claimed £5,425 between September 2007 and January 2008 for renting a cottage in Castle Street, Summerseat.

But a police investigation showed the property, Delph Cottage, belonged to his mother, Olive Trickett.

Mrs Trickett had lived in the cottage for 40 years but eventually moved to Holme Manor care home, in Townsend Fold, Rawtenstall, in May 2007 when she developed dementia. She died aged 81 in May 2009.

Her family were descendants of footwear magnate Sir Henry Trickett, who bequeathed land which became Trickett’s Memorial Ground in Waterfoot.

Chaytor was first former MP jailed over the parliamentary expenses scandal.

It is understood that the ex-Labour MP for Bury North was freed from Spring Hill Prison, near Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, under the home detention curfew scheme, which allows non-violent prisoners who pose a low risk to be tagged and released early.

Chaytor, aged 61, became the first former MP to be jailed since Tory peer Lord Archer when he was sentenced in January.

Southwark Crown Court heard that he forged tenancy documents and invoices to make fraudulent expenses claims for rent and IT work from the Commons authorities.

In March the Court of Appeal rejected an attempt by the former lecturer to have his prison sentence reduced, ruling that his offences were "a grave breach of trust" that contributed to "serious damage" to Parliament's reputation.

Chaytor, of Lumbutts, Todmorden, will be on the home detention curfew scheme for the next four and a half months before spending the last nine months of his sentence on probation.

A Prison Service spokesman said: "A home detention curfew (HDC) is available to low-risk prisoners serving sentences of more than three months and less than four years, who are deemed appropriate for early release.

"To be placed on HDC, a prisoner must have served a quarter of their sentence and have spent a minimum of 30 days in prison.

"If a prison governor thinks there is a significant risk to the public, or risk of re-offending on HDC then the release will not be granted."