Former union boss and ex-MP Craig Thomson has no money to pay any penalty imposed over hundreds of thousands of dollars in union funds he used without authority, including for prostitutes, the Federal Court has heard. The court is hearing submissions in Melbourne on penalties in a civil case brought by the Fair Work Commission over the former Health Services Union secretary’s misuse of union money for his own benefit. The hearing follows a damning judgment by Justice Christopher Jessup in September backing the commission’s position that Thomson had misspent more than $300,000 of union funds on brothels, travel and his own federal politics campaign in 2007. Thomson did not appear in court, and although the court was previously told he could not afford a lawyer, he was represented by employment lawyer Chris McArdle. The civil case comes after Thomson was last year found guilty of theft by the County Court of Victoria for which he was fined $25,000, narrowly avoiding jail time.
