Craig Thomson: Former Labor MP charged over alleged visa fraud

The former Member for Dobell was arrested by federal police at his Central Coast home this morning following raids earlier this year.

Former federal Labor MP Craig Thomson has been arrested by federal police at his Central Coast home this morning.

Australian Federal Police allege Thomson, 57, was the “primary facilitator of a multimillion (dollar) migration fraud”.

Former MP Craig Thomson. Picture: Nathan Dyer

The former Member for Dobell was taken to Gosford police station where he was charged with migration fraud and was expected to appear in court later this afternoon.

AFP officers and Australian Border Force agents raided Thomson’s Wamberal home earlier this year and left with a large number of items. No charges were laid at the time.

Additional search warrants were conducted on Thomson’s Terrigal home and a Tuggerah property on Wednesday.

He was charged with a total of 30 fraud charges, including one count of providing false documents and false or misleading information relating to non-citizens, 19 counts of providing false documents and false or misleading information etc. relating to non-citizens and one count of referring a lawful non-citizen for work in breach of a work-related condition.

Thomson, pictured after his 2014 conviction, has been charged by the AFP.

He was also charged with a further five counts of prohibition on asking for or receiving a benefit in return for the occurrence of a sponsorship-related event, two counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception, one count of dealing with proceeds of crime and one count of dealing with proceeds of crime.

Mr Thomson was due to face Gosford Local Court today but officers missed the cut-off deadline to provide court staff the necessary paperwork to process fresh custody matters in time to place them before a Magistrate this afternoon.

Instead Mr Thomson will be refused bail by police and held overnight before he can appear at court via video link from custody tomorrow, when it is anticipated he will make an application for bail.

In 2014 he was sentenced by a Victorian court to three months in jail, with a further nine months suspended, for stealing from the Health Services Union in his previous role as the union’s national secretary.