Former Labor MP Craig Thomson pleads not guilty to Covid fraud charges
VIDEO: Former Labor MP Craig Thomson has flagged a “malicious prosecution” case against police after entering pleas to Covid payment fraud charges. Hear what he said outside court.
Central Coast
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Former Labor MP Craig Thomson has maintained his innocence over alleged Covid payment fraud charges to the value of $25,000.
Mr Thomson appeared before Gosford Local Court on Tuesday where his criminal lawyer Jamie Clements formally entered pleas of not guilty to four charges.
The charges included two counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception, publishing false and misleading material to obtain advantage and making false documents to obtain financial advantage.
The charges were laid in March with the court hearing they predated the Commonwealth Visa and JobKeeper fraud offences that Mr Thomson was charged with in late 2021.
Mr Thomson is yet to enter a plea to the Commonwealth charges.
Outside court, the 57-year-old told the Express that the police had a “weak case” with continued requests for extra time despite raids being conducted almost 11 months ago.
“We are now up to five months of extra time,” Mr Thomson said.
“This is clearly a very very weak case. There is nothing that we have done wrong. This case is falling apart and we expect that eventually there will be a good outcome in relation to these matters.
“The police don’t have evidence, there is no evidence. There is no crime.”
Mr Thomson said he had always reported all of his income and had accountants involved.
“We’ve been absolutely transparent the whole way through. This is a complete stuff up by the police,” he said.
He said his life had been “turned upside down in a whole range of personal ways and business and the like”.
“We are seriously looking at malicious prosecution as a remedy in relation to this matter when it’s either dropped which would be the sensible thing for the police to do or when I am found not guilty at the end of these matters,” he said.
Mr Clements told the court Mr Thomson’s fresh matters were last adjourned on the understanding they would be joined with the Commonwealth matters. However he said this was no longer the case.
Mr Clements also flagged lodging a suppression application regarding both matters at the next occasion.
Mr Thomson’s bail was continued and the matters were adjourned to Gosford Local Court on July 7.
In relation to the Covid payment charges, police allege that Thomson fraudulently applied for and received a Small Business Covid-19 Support grant of $10,000 for a cafe with the money used towards his personal mortgage and credit card.
He also allegedly received a Covid-19 Small Business Hardship grant for $15,000 for the cafe, which the court heard had ceased trading, with the money used for school fees, lease of a vehicle and other personal uses.
Police will allege Thomson also submitted a fraudulent application for JobSaver payments of $3000 a fortnight, which was not approved or paid, and allegedly fraudulently signed and submitted a document for the purpose of obtaining a reduction in rent.
The Commonwealth matters allege that Thomson claimed nearly $60,000 in JobKeeper payments using the names of two staff from a cafe which had been demolished.
Among the 30 charges relating to allegedly falsifying visa documents and accepting payments for visa sponsorships, which were ultimately refused, Thomson was also charged with obtaining JobKeeper funds by deception.
Thomson left politics and returned to a career as a lawyer after failing to win back his seat of Dobell at the 2013 federal election.
He had won the seat as a Labor candidate in 2007 and remained aligned with the party until 2012.
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