Former Labor MP Craig Thomson to face hearing over alleged Covid payment fraud
The police case against former Labor MP Craig Thomson over alleged Covid fraud has 28 witnesses. Hear the latest from court.
Central Coast
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Former federal Labor MP Craig Thomson will fight alleged Covid payment fraud charges to the value of $25,000.
The former Labor MP appeared before Gosford Local Court on Tuesday where a hearing date was supposed to be set for the state-related matters.
Mr Thomson, 58, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of dishonestly obtain financial advantage, one count of publish false misleading material to obtain advantage and one count of make false document to obtain financial advantage.
On Tuesday, the court heard that there would be 28 prosecution witnesses in the hearing, however Thomson’s lawyer asked for extra time to go over each witness statement with his client to determine how many would be cross-examined.
Magistrate Alan Railton said he couldn’t set a hearing date without knowing the number of witnesses required and adjourned the matter to December 13.
The Covid fraud charges were laid in March 2022 with police alleging 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, 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 state charges predate the 22 Commonwealth charges Thomson is facing over alleged visa migration fraud. He is yet to plead to these charges which are coming back to Gosford Local Court in January.
On Tuesday, Thomson also pleaded not guilty to a charge of contravening an apprehended violence order at Terrigal in September, with a hearing date set for August 15, 2023.
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. He now runs a fruit and vegetable export business.
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