Kathy Jackson found guilty of swindling Health Services Union of $100k
Former union boss Kathy Jackson has been convicted of stealing more than $100,000 from the HSU, following a plea deal.
Former union boss Kathy Jackson has been convicted of stealing more than $100,000 from the Health Services Union, following a plea deal.
Jackson was initially charged with 169 offences which was reduced to 70 charges and divided into two trials. The first trial was suppressed until the verdict in the second trial.
The second trial was listed for May this year, with Jackson facing 48 charges but she entered into a plea agreement Monday afternoon, pleading to just two charges of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage.
The first trial took place last October and November, with Jackson facing 22 charges, with one dismissed by the County Court judge Mandy Fox.
She had faced 21 charges – 18 theft, two obtaining financial advantage by deception and one of obtaining property by deception, including an allegation she stole $63,000 from the union to pay off her mortgage.
Following three days of deliberation, the jury found Jackson guilty of two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
The total amount was $35,100.
She was convicted of having the HSU Victoria No 3 branch pay her $13,100, as alleged reimbursement of travel expenses on a trip to a board meeting in America, and helping her husband, Jeff, pay off a $22,000 debt for his Mercedes by using union funds.
In the second trial Jackson would have been up against 48 charges.
Under a generous plea bargain, Jackson pleaded guilty to just two counts – one theft valued at $56,273.78 (combining 27 instances), and a second count valued at $11,519.07.
In total Jackson had been accused of misappropriating nearly $500,000 from the Health Services Union to pay for personal flights, hotels and other items from 2003 to 2011.
Jackson has more recently appeared before the NSW Supreme Court where she is fighting for a stake in the $30m estate of Sydney silk David Rofe.
Jackson is one of a dozen people, including Rofe’s carer and ex-partner Gregg Hele and Rofe’s nephew Philip Rofe, fighting over how to divide the estate after they failed to reach a mediated settlement.
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