Craig Thomson and his defense.

[catsnknots]

Mr James argued that the rules of the HSU did not define the boundaries of work-related expenditure, and because the expenses had been approved and paid, no party had been actually defrauded.

lol... so the people that pay their dues will be happy with their money being spent on what Craig spent their money on. He really has no compassion for these hard working people if he thinks that his spending was ok. That makes him more disgusting in my eye. 

[freakiness]

According to the evidence the credit card was included in his salary package.

After audits there is about $20,000 unaccounted for, over a period of about 5 years.

This is looking more and more like the biggest ever stitch up.

[freddie*rooster]

Craig Thomson's failings were he didn't buy a bike, travel the Country, go to friends weddings, go to football games and claim he was doing work related work. 

[icyfroth]

He's going to get off on a technicality isn't he?

[kengillard]

you forgot the budgie smugglers!

[azureline**]

They shouldn't discriminate, they should investigate everyone who has a credit card or any claims.

[freakiness]

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@icyfroth wrote:

He's going to get off on a technicality isn't he?

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What technicality?

If the card is part of his salary package it is within his rights to use it.

[poddster]

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@freddie*rooster wrote:

Craig Thomson's failings were he didn't buy a bike, travel the Country, go to friends weddings, go to football games and claim he was doing work related work. 

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No his failings dishonesty, theft, and being a shonk.

Anyone that fly in the face of the evidence and regard this scum innocent is deluded.

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[poddster]

The notion of an unlimited credit as part of a salery package could only have come from a Union. I wonder how many of those exist?

[monman12]

Whatever happened to his "defense" of:  "I was framed, my signature was forged, someone else used my phone,  I did not use the services of escorts" ?.

FN: "or the fact that he has proved he was not int he state on the dates of the so called brothel visits"

FN:  "If the card is part of his salary package it is within his rights to use it."

Actually it was a part of a contractual arrangement that credit cards issued to him in his then role as Health Services Union national secretary were to pay for personal expenses, and Thomson was only permitted to use union funds for the advancement of the HSU and its members

"It is so self-evidently absurd that a written policy is necessary for intelligent, experienced union officials, particularly like Mr Thomson, to understand that he could not use a union-funded credit card for what he liked, particularly when he masked the transactions"

However Thomson could possibly  argue that his trysts were nothing more than  union funded unions.