Billionaire Clive Palmer represents himself in court and asks for criminal charges be thrown out

Senate candidate and serial litigant Clive Palmer has quoted a former Prime Minister, claimed a political conspiracy, quoted in Latin and referred to Halsbury’s laws of England in his bid to have criminal charges laid against him thrown out.

Senate candidate and serial litigant Clive Palmer has quoted a former Prime Minister, claimed a political conspiracy, quoted in Latin and referred to Halsbury’s laws of England in his bid to have criminal charges laid against him thrown out.

Mr Palmer, who is acting as his own barrister, is in the Supreme Court in Brisbane today before Justice Peter Callaghan where he is arguing his prosecution by the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions on two charges is an abuse of process.

Mr Palmer is accused of breaching corporate law in 2012 when he announced a takeover of the body corporate ­behind his Sunshine Coast resort but the deal didn’t eventuate.

The corporate watchdog also alleges Mr Palmer breached his duties as director of Mineralogy and committed fraud by using money from a joint account held with subsidiaries of his Chinese mining business partner CITIC to fund the 2013 federal election campaign for his Palmer United Party.

Businessman Clive Palmer leaves the Supreme Court in Brisbane. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The charges are currently in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.

In court today the mining magnate said the charges against him were “a nonsense” and quoted former PM Paul Keating referring to John Hewson, “I want to do you slowly”, referring to the slow pace of his prosecution, which refers to events dating back a decade.

“It is a nonsense to suggest that the second plaintiff would aid and abet a party doing something which according to the orders of Justice Greenwood could not possibly have happened,” Mr Palmer told the court.

Mr Palmer also claimed that the charges amounted to a political conspiracy against him.

“For some reason ….these types of prosecutions only happen to national political leaders, in my case I’ve only ever been charged with a criminal offence after a superior court has found to the contrary and after I became a billionaire and after I entered public service,” he told the court, which is filled with lawyers for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.

Clive Palmer leaves the Supreme Court in Brisbane today. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

“Maybe this is a prerequisite, your honour, for charges of this nature, remembering the 120 years of judicial history in Australia, there have only been two criminal charges brought contrary to a judgment of superior courts in this country,” Mr Palmer said.

Mr Palmer said the case against him had “a certain smell” about it, and submitted that he regarded it as his personal duty “as a citizen to bring this action” to “protect the processes of the courts”.

Mr Palmer argued the case against him was “a mischief carried out by” the Commonwealth DPP and it showed contempt for the proper administration of justice, and the case has no real prospects of success and that former ASIC chair Tony Hartnell had written a report in favour of his case.

“The prosecutor should never have commenced these proceedings,” he submitted.

The case, in which thousands of pages of affidavits and exhibits have been filed, resumes at 2pm today when Gim Del Villar QC, counsel for ASIC, is due to make his submissions.