Ed Byrne pleaded guilty to two fraud-related charges related to misuse of his constituency allowance. (CBC)

A former Newfoundland and Labrador politician will learn Friday whether he will be sent to jail, amid new revelations that he improperly used his constituency allowance to finance a byelection campaign.

The Crown has argued that Ed Byrne, who pleaded guilty this winter to two fraud-related charges, should go to jail because of a violation of the public trust. Byrne's lawyer has argued that he should be given a conditional sentence — tantamount to house arrest — because he has already sustained a devastating loss to his career and reputation.

Byrne, a former leader of the Progressive Conservative party, resigned as natural resources minister in June 2006, amid the first revelations of a legislative spending scandal that would eventually cross all party lines in the Newfoundland and Labrador legislator.

Judge Mark Pike is scheduled to sentence Byrne during a proceeding at provincial court in St. John's late Friday morning.

In an agreed statement of facts presented to Pike earlier this month, Byrne admitted to forging documents and faking signatures over a six-year period, defrauding the government of more than $117,000.

Meanwhile, CBC News has uncovered details that Byrne used some of the stolen money to improperly finance a byelection campaign that secured a narrow PC victory in a district that historically had voted Liberal.

Tory Wally Young won the January 2001 race in St. Barbe district by just 23 votes, in a historic breakthrough for the party in the Northern Peninsula.

Documents show longtime party organizer Wayne Clarke was paid $3,000 to work on the campaign. While it's not unusual for party workers to be paid for campaigns, Clarke's payment came through Byrne's constituency allowance, and not through the PC party itself, court documents show.

Byrne submitted a fake receipt to the house of assembly claiming Clarke's activities were for "district work," without specifying what he did. As well, court was told, Byrne inflated the bill to $5,000, and kept $2,000 for himself.

CBC News tried to contact Clarke, but calls were not returned.

There is no evidence that Clarke did anything wrong, or even knew where the $3,000 came from.

No evidence against Young of wrongdoing

Because byelection campaigns have spending limits, payments such as the one made to Clarke have to be reported to the Chief Electoral Office. However, none of the financial documents that the Young campaign filed with the electoral office shows any record of the payment.

There is no evidence Young did anything wrong or even knew about this arrangement.

Young told CBC News that he assumed the PC party had paid Clarke directly, and that he did not know anything about what Byrne had done.

CBC News contacted chief electoral officer Paul Reynolds about the payment.

Reynolds declined comment, as the matter was before the courts. He said, though, that he will not be pursuing the issue any further and that in his view the St. Barbe byelection was conducted properly.