Ex-Labor MP and accused fraudster Craig Thomson cleared for overseas trip to India

Craig Thomson has been cleared to jetset to India in a matter of days to oversee the packing of a shipment of garlic due to be imported into Australia in the coming weeks.

Craig Thomson will be allowed to fly overseas for work later this month. Picture: David Swift

Commonwealth prosecutors have failed in a bid to stop embattled ex-MP Craig Thomson from flying to India for work, despite warning the former Central Coast politician could flee from authorities while out of the country.

Thomson, a one-time Health Services Union secretary who held the federal seat of Dobell from 2007 to 2013, is due to face back-to-back trials in October this year over his alleged involvement in separate migration visa and Covid support payment frauds, which are alleged to have netted him millions of dollars.

The 59-year-old’s current bail conditions on both sets of charges require him to report to police multiple times a week and prohibit him from possessing a passport or approaching international airports.

In Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court on Tuesday, lawyers for Thomson said the father-of-two needed to travel to India on January 13 for a week to negotiate with suppliers and oversee the “packing and quality control” of a shipment of garlic.

Ex-federal MP Craig Thomson leaving court in Sydney last year. Picture: Jane Dempster

The court heard Thomson had been operating a fruit and vegetable importation company with business partner Glen McKinnon for several years and had travelled to India on multiple occasions before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Mr McKinnon is not accused of any wrongdoing.

Prosecutors opposed the bail variation amid concerns Thomson would abscond while overseas and fail to return to Australia to face trial.

A representative for the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said Thomson had provided a “florid” depiction of his need to travel in an affidavit tendered to the court, which sat somewhat at odds with a similar letter written by Mr McKinnon.

“There is tension between Mr Thomson’s [affidavit, which] paints a somewhat florid picture of him as being a midwife to trade between Australia and India writ large, and the matters deposed to by Mr McKinnon, which seem to go to the nub of the trip’s purpose being to supervise the packing and quality control of a garlic shipment,” the prosecutor said.

“That’s quite different than the larger trade purpose and one queries what special role Mr Thomson plays in the packing and quality control of packing garlic.”

However, Judge Mark Williams rejected the Crown’s concerns and agreed to return Thomson’s passport and temporarily suspend his reporting condition for the time he is away.

Thomson will have his passport returned to him by police and his reporting conditions suspended while he is overseas. Picture: David Swift

As part of the bail, Mr McKinnon agreed to lodge a $10,000 cash surety to ensure Thomson returned to Australia at the end of the work trip.

“He doesn’t appear to have any ties to India apart from his business connection,” Judge Williams said.

“There’s nothing to suggest he’s got a secret family over there or he’s going to stay over there.”

Thomson’s bail conditions will revert to the original conditions once he returns from India on January 20, the court heard.

Thomson has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges including 18 counts of delivering a document containing a false statement over allegations he was the “primary facilitator in a multimillion dollar migration fraud” that helped nine foreign workers obtain visas between 2017 and 2020.

He is also charged with fraud offences stemming from allegations he obtained a financial advantage by deception over Covid Jobkeeper payments on behalf of employees at his North Grounds Cafe, north of Wyong.

His arraignment in September last year came more than two years after his former house at Wamberal was raided by Australian Federal Police officers, in concert with officers from Border Force and Home Affairs, in July 2021.