Union boss’s lies laid bare
Members paid $ 100k for OS holidays, luxury items
DISGRACED former Health Services Union boss Kathy Jackson swiped her unionissued credit cards to the tune of more than $ 100,000 for overseas family holidays, home furnishings, artworks and jewellery.
Jackson, 52, appeared in the County Court of Victoria on Tuesday via videolink from her home in the NSW coastal town of Wombarra.
The HSU has filed an application with the court seeking compensation orders against Jackson to force her to repay the money blown on personal expenses.
Prosecutor Mark Gibson told the court Jackson had shown no remorse or insight into her deceitful offending. He said she used her three union credit cards on 23 occasions while on 13 trips, including for the travel expenses of her children, her former husband, Jeff Jackson, and current partner Michael Lawler, between 2003 and 2010.
She jetsetted on union members’ money to New Zealand, the US, London, Athens, Hong Kong, Bali and India. In March 2007, the mother of three billed the union for a family holiday to France.
She also paid off a $ 22,000 debt owed by Mr Jackson on his Mercedes, misrepresenting it as “legal expenses”. Mr Gibson said Jackson claimed that purchases including a table lamp, shelving, curtains and an entertainment unit — totalling $ 3500 — were “office furnishings” or “relocation expenses”. But store records showed the items were delivered to her home.
Her deception involved “greed, not need”, Mr Gibson said, and totalled $ 102,892.85.
But defence barrister Theo Alexander spoke to Jackson’s good character and whistleblowing work, claiming “good people do bad things”.
In December last year, a jury found Jackson guilty of two counts of obtaining financial advantage by deception, and she pleaded guilty last month to two more such counts. Jackson will be sentenced on November 26.
Judge Amanda Fox has indicated she would impose a wholly suspended jail term.