Derrick Belan loses appeal for defrauding National Union of Workers NSW

An ex-union boss who spent $500,000 of members’ money on Botox, a tattoo, cars and a Harley Davidson will remain behind bars after losing his appeal.

Derrick Belan arrives at Parramatta Local Court before he was jailed in 2018. Picture: AAP Image/Brendan Esposito

A former union boss who spent more than half a million dollars of members’ money on Botox, a tattoo, a cruise, cars, a Frozen-themed cubby house and a Harley Davidson will remain behind bars after losing his appeal on Thursday.

Derrick Belan, 50, the former secretary of the National Union of Workers NSW branch, argued he had been the victim of a “jurisdictional error” and a derisory judge but his claims were rejected by the three judges of the Court of Appeal.

Derrick Belan arrives at the Parramatta Local Court in 2018, where he pleaded not guilty to misusing union branch funds. Picture: AAP Image/Brendan Esposito

He had tried to argue he had not been deceiving the shopkeepers by using the union credit card but the prosecution pointed out that he had been charged with deceiving the union, not the retailers.

He will remain in jail until he can first apply for parole in March 2022 for 56 fraud offences stretching from 2010 to 2016, costing more than $580,000.

The court was told that Belan maintained the person to blame was his niece, Danielle O’Brien, who was also the union’s bookkeeper.

That has been totally rejected by the courts as was his argument that he had no knowledge of misuse of union funds.

He was jailed in 2018 by the Local Court for four years with a non-parole period of three years but released on bail by the Supreme Court in September 2019 pending his appeals against his convictions and sentence.

His bail was revoked in September 2020 after he lost his appeal against his conviction and dropped his appeal against his sentence.

His latest appeal was on a civil jurisdictional error which he also lost.

The court said that some of the charges were not based on the use of credit cards or electronic funds transfers but on his participation in a scheme with the former boss of Sydney’s CMS IT Angelo Millena to produce false invoices which would be rendered upon the union and paid, from which Millena would receive a benefit.

These accounted for $318,381 including $180,000 on rental accommodation for Belan and his ex-wife, $1,862 for Botox for the couple, a Peugeot for his mother, a gaming computer and a Harley Davidson motorcycle for himself.

He also spent $1,850 of union money in on-board purchases during a P&O cruise with his partner and $432 on a tattoo.

Derrick Belan’s tattoo of his parents on his leg.

Derrick Belan in 2016.

Milenna, who has previously pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal group and receiving material benefits from criminal group, has been sentenced to nine-month intensive correction order and repaid the $41,000 he received in kickbacks for his role in the scam.

The Court of Appeal found that Belan’s appeals had been dealt with in accordance with the law and rejected the argument that the judge who in September 2020 revoked his bail had been “extremely hostile, derisory and sceptical”.

The court was given a copy of the transcript from that date which showed Belan’s counsel told the judge he had “recently been briefed with a brain scan of (Belan) which referred to a perfusion through both cerebral hemispheres”.

The judge said the defence had had that since 2018.

This was the exchange:

Judge: “So you now want an adjournment on the basis that you want to obtain further evidence in relation to the perfusion of his brain?”

Counsel: “Your Honour says that in a sceptical, derisory tone. I’m just enquiring why, your Honour?”

Judge: “Because you have had since 2018 to take further action in relation to this matter and you have done nothing. Until now you get a report of 17 September and you do nothing again in relation to it.”

Counsel: “I received it today, your Honour.”