Craig Thomson released on bail after launching appeal against sentence
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Version 0 of 1. Former Labor MP Craig Thomson has been released on bail after launching an appeal against a sentence that would put him in prison for three months for defrauding the Health Services Union. Thomson was handed a 12-month jail term with nine months suspended at the Melbourne magistrates court on Tuesday morning. He was found guilty of 65 dishonesty charges. He has agreed to repay $24,000 to the HSU, after using the money for personal expenses, including prostitutes, when he was national secretary of the union. In sentencing him, magistrate Charlie Rozencwajg said that Thomson had shown a “brazen arrogance and sense of entitlement” in using the funds of union members for “selfish personal ends”. Rozencwajg said he rejected Thomson’s defence that the offences were opportunistic, commenting that the former MP had a “flagrant and insouciant manner” when fraudulently paying for personal services. "Nothing has been put before me to suggest these offences were committed for any reason other than greed,” he said. The magistrate noted that the intense media scrutiny had caused distress to Thomson and his family, citing reports from two psychologists who diagnosed him with “severe anxiety and severe stress” and clinically severe depression. But Rozencwajg added: “Ms Taylor, senior counsel for the prosecution has stressed your utter lack of remorse which demonstrates an absolute void where one might expect some acceptance of responsibility. “In my view that is not an inappropriate observation.” Thomson lodged an immediate appeal against the sentence, which can carry a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He was released on bail ahead of the appeal, which will be heard on 24 November. The HSU welcomed Thomson’s sentence, national secretary Kathy Jackson telling reporters outside court that it was “about justice for all working men and women across the nation, not just the Health Services Union.” Marco Bolano, the union whistleblower who was accused by Thomson, under parliamentary privilege, of threatening to set him up “with a bunch of hookers”, said the former MP for Dobell was fortunate not to get a longer sentence. “I think he’s lucky that he’s got no [criminal] history and that the amounts are considered small in this day and age,” Bolano told Guardian Australia. Asked about Thomson’s appeal, Bolano said: “I think he’s mad, I think he’s insane. I don’t know what his legal advice is. It’s the madness of Craig Thomson all over again.” Thomson left the HSU to run for parliament and was elected as Labor MP for Dobell in 2007. In 2012, Fair Work Australia launched legal action against Thomson for illegitimate expenses, with the MP claiming union rivals set him up. Labor suspended Thomson and he lost his bid to be re-elected last year. |