Craig Thomson arrives at the Melbourne County Court for sentencing. Picture: Aaron Francis Source: News Corp Australia

The former Labor MP walked free from court this afternoon, having won his gamble of appealing a magistrate’s sentence for three months in prison and a nine-month suspended sentence.

Victorian County Court judge Carolyn Douglas said it was “regrettable” fraud charges against Thomson were incorrectly framed, in her view, so she had to acquit him on those charges and only convict him for 13 charges of stealing about $5000 from the HSU to pay for prostitutes and expensive meals with his then wife.

Former Labor MP Craig Thomson acquitted of fraud charges

Thomson has three months to pay the fine, as well as $5650 in compensation to the Heath Services Union.

Judge Douglas described his crimes as “appalling”.

“The evidence was overwhelming as to his dishonesty,” she said.

“He abused that position by deliberately using the funds ...(for) self-indulgent behaviour.”

Judge Douglas said Thomson’s reputation was permanently damaged, but said the media coverage of his case was “well-deserved” given how he had misused his position as HSU national secretary. She also praised the police investigation.

Thomson will next year face a civil trial launched by the Fair Work Commission in the Federal Court.

Asked whether he now admitted lying to Parliament, Thomson declined to comment as he left the court.

Prosecutor Lesley Taylor QC this morning said anything less than a term of imprisonment would be manifestly inadequate, pointing to decisions in which the Court of Appeal had overturned suspended sentences for similar offences.

Ms Taylor said Thomson had shown “not one skerrick of remorse”, continuing to protest his innocence and paint himself as a victim of an unfair justice system.

“He has blamed everyone else for the situation in which he has found himself,” she said.

“It’s breathtaking, his lack of insight and his inability to recognise that he has done anything wrong whatsoever.”

Thomson’s barrister Greg James QC had asked for a fine of between $10,000 and $20,000, arguing the breach of trust was equivalent to a CEO who fiddled a company expense account

He said Thomson was “compelled” to spend time away from home for work, and therefore used HSU funds “to satisfy a personal frailty”.

Asked about an expensive dinner — including a bottle of wine worth more than $200 — which Thomson had shared with his then wife and paid for with union funds, Mr James said Thomson might have needed to “make up” for time away from his spouse.

Ms Taylor said the argument Thomson turned to prostitutes because he was lonely on business trips could not be substantiated, pointing to an occasion where he had left home, gone to Sydney for sexual services, and then returned home.

“The offending was deliberate, egregious, the breach of trust is enormous,” she said.

The court heard Thomson is offering himself as a consultant, trying to negotiate commercial contracts for mining companies.

He has spent over $400,000 on his legal defence — which was expanded from two to three barristers for the appeal — and has no assets remaining, relying on financial support from his family.

Despite claiming in Parliament that he was framed, Thomson has fought the charges on the basis that he was authorised to spend union funds as he saw fit.

He has repeatedly maintained his innocence, describing his decision not to dispute the facts of his spending as a tactic to cut legal costs, but Mr James told the appeal hearing that Thomson had publicly lied as an MP about using union credit cards for escorts to “divert” attention from the scandal.