Craig Thomson arrested over AVO breach hours after pleading guilty in court
Within hours of walking out of court on Tuesday, former Labor MP Craig Thomson was back in police custody over an allegedly fresh breach.
NSW
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The downfall of disgraced former federal MP Craig Thomson has allegedly hit a new low, after he was arrested for breaching an AVO within hours of being sentenced in court on an identical charge.
Thomson, 57, faced Gosford Local Court on Tuesday morning where he pleaded guilty to using a device to menace or harass his ex-wife Zoe and three counts of contravening an AVO taken out for her protection.
He was sentenced to an 18-month conditional release order, a condition of which was for Thomson to commit no further crime.
But within hours of walking out of court Thomson was back in the custody of NSW Police over an allegedly fresh breach.
The Daily Telegraph understands that from court, Thomson arrived at a location where Thomson’s ex-wife was present.
It is alleged that the former Labor MP breached his AVO at that time.
“At 2.30pm on Tuesday, March 22 2022, a 57-year-old man was arrested in Wamberal in relation to an alleged breach of AVO,” a NSW Police spokeswoman said.
“He was taken to Gosford Police Station where he is currently assisting police with their inquiries.”
The conditions of the AVO taken out by police for Ms Thomson’s protection are understood to have been altered in Gosford Local Court on Tuesday.
The AVO is in place for two years.
Thomson left politics and returned to a career as a lawyer after failing to win back his seat of Dobell at the 2013 election.
He had won the seat as a Labor candidate in 2007 and remained aligned with the party until 2012, when he moved to the crossbench as an independent amid the union credit card scandal that almost saw him jailed.
Thomson was eventually convicted of theft over the use of his Health Services Union credit card on everything from prostitutes to funding his 2007 electoral campaign, and was fined $25,000.
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