Craig Thomson to face more charges

[icyfroth]

Former federal MP Craig Thomson will face more charges as prosecutors attempt to clarify the details of his alleged misuse of union credit cards.

Thomson, 49, is accused of misusing credit cards to pay for female escorts and X-rated movies while he was national secretary of the Health Services Union (HSU) and a Labor MP.

Prosecutor Lesley Taylor SC told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday that about 50 new charges would be lodged against Thomson, after his lawyers complained of duplicity within the existing 173 charges.

Thomson is charged with 11 counts of theft, 31 counts of obtaining property by deception and 131 counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception.

Ms Taylor said there was no new criminality alleged against Thomson.

In most of the charges the alleged victim was the HSU, she said.

"He is deceiving the union by saying that this transaction is a union expense and not a personal expense," she told the court.

However, Thomson's barrister Greg James QC said the structure of the case against his client meant it was "doomed to failure".

Ms Taylor said negotiations between prosecutors and Mr James will continue before the matter returns to court on Monday, when the hearing is scheduled to start.

Magistrate Charles Rozencwajg extended Thomson's bail until Monday.

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[polocross58]

Michael Smith is surprisingly erudite, well-informed, extremely articulate, idealistic and courageous, in my opinion

I knew little about him so was amazed, upon reading his material, to learn we have a journalist of his calibre.  I'd thought the monopolistic, ' we're under no obligation to tell the truth', dumbed-down, corporate media had succeeded in snuffing the life out of genuine journalism.  Smith proved me wrong.  He's a breath of fresh air.  No doubt that's why the mere mention of his name strikes fear in many quarters

[lakeland27]

---

@polocross58 wrote:

Lakeland, I don't understand

How can documented evidence, much of obtained via the Supreme Court, be described as 'twisted' ?

Same with documentation signed by the accused ? 

Witnesses and their sworn statements/testimony -- 'twisted' ?

Williamson is lying?

They're all lying ?

Why?  Why would they all lie about a nonentity and several hundred thousand dollars of misspent union funds, particularly when the use to which those union funds were put isn't even a matter of disupte but instead is documented?

---

 smith is keen to muddy gillards name, so obsessive is he that he was sacked out of concern that his fantasies (the way he interprets the material is twisting it to suit his agenda) would lead to a major litigation case. you don't worry about being sued if you have proof, management judged smith didn't have material that amounted to Proof and decided he was a liability. despite his claims he wasn't sacked.

[polocross58]

Lakeland

Your claims don't jell with what I've learned

Maybe you need to access documentation on Smith's site and get a fuller appreciation of what occurred

I have

So have tens of thousands of Aussies

Naturally, those terrified of what has already emerged, with more to come, will attempt to smear the sources

Time will vindicate some and condemn others

Michael Smith has nothing to fear

Can Gillard and Thompson say the same ?

[silverfaun]

Never mind he still has Gillards support for a very long, long, long time I suppose she felt abliged to support him in Parliament for all that time (2years) the FWA dragged their feet to protect him, nothing done about that. All the while she was & still is under investigatiion for her sleazy behaviour.

Thank God they have GONE, the criminals who inhabited the high office of Australia & protected by Labor. All we can hope for is all the crooked NSW Labor MP's are sucked up along with Obead, tgut them out of our political landscape  fororever.

[lakeland27]

 gillard has nothing to worry about. i haven't read where she rorted parliamentary expenses either (it would have come up eh ?)

 she is far more honest in fact than the current PM tone the travel rorter

if there was anything to these AWU matters  the government would be talking about it to distract from their failings as always

[spotweldersfriend]

Smith and jerk in the same sentence.At last,someone with sense:-)

[tezza2844]

The Australian today, 

The article begins:

Craig Thomson fraud case in doubt

THE police fraud case against former Labor MP Craig Thomson could be in doubt with the revelation that Victorian prosecutors offered to drop all 173 charges over alleged misuse of union credit cards if he pleaded guilty to a single offence of "obtaining benefits by deception".

Mr Thomson's lawyer, Chris McArdle, told The Australian yesterday his client was offered the deal to face a "single charge" on Friday during pre-trial discussions between prosecution and defence legal teams.

After considering the offer - which would result in a fine as the maximum penalty - last weekend, Mr Thomson decided to fight all charges related to alleged misuse of credit cards totalling $28,000 across a five-year period.

With no compromise in sight, prosecutors took the opposite course in Melbourne Magistrates Court yesterday, flagging an intention to file more than 50 extra charges.

The new charges will not add any new allegations of criminality, and Mr Thomson's lawyers will argue they amount to duplication.

[topsidesoul]