THE PENNY FINALLY DROPS

Gold Coast mayoral candidate wipes away tears as perjury guilty verdict handed down

“BADLY burned” Gold Coast mayoral candidate Penny Toland has escaped jail time for lying to authorities.

The medical scientist and former wannabe politician was yesterday convicted in the Brisbane District Court of committing perjury at a June 2017 Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) hearing.

She told the CCC she did not know about campaign bus advertising paid for by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) until after the signage was displayed during the 2016 Gold Coast council elections.

She clutched a wad of tissues and wiped away tears when it was announced she would not have to spend time in jail, but declined to speak to the media.

“BADLY burned” Gold Coast mayoral candidate Penny Toland clutched a wad of tissues and wiped away tears when it was announced she had escaped jail time for lying to authorities.

The medical scientist and former wannabe politician was yesterday convicted in the Brisbane District court of committing perjury at a June 2017 Crime and Corruption Commission (CCC) hearing.

She told the CCC she did not know about campaign bus advertising paid for by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) until after the signage was displayed during the 2016 Gold Coast council elections.

Toland was found guilty by a jury of 10 women and two men after two days of evidence and three hours of deliberations.

Judge Brian Devereaux sentenced her to 18 months in prison, immediately suspended for two-and-a-half years.

Toland remained stoic until speaking with family. Then the tears came.

She declined to speak to media.

Judge Devereaux said the lie was on the lower scale of perjury.

“It did not cause a miscarriage of justice but had the potential to subvert the hearings,” he said.

It was a joke email that revealed Toland had seen a little more about the buses than she had told the CCC hearing.

After being sent a mock-up of the advertisements, Toland wrote to a campaign staff member: “I have heard of having an ass like the back of a bus haha … looks really good.”

Those bus advertisements were later paid for by the CFMEU.

Toland also claimed she did not know about the CFMEU’s $38,000 contribution towards her campaign until she saw their disclosure return months after the election.

Toland’s barrister Greg Barns, instructed by Potts Lawyers, said the conviction put her job as a medical scientist at the Gold Coast University Hospital at risk.

He said she had also come under a large amount of public scrutiny.

“This is a person who has been badly burned from this process,” Mr Barns said.

The court was told Toland, who had previously been stalked, was forced to sell her home after a photo of it was tweeted by a television station.

Mr Barns said she minimised her involvement with the CFMEU but the lie did not cause a miscarriage of justice or jeopardise the rights or liberty of someone else.

He said there was no impact on the CCC hearings.

Crown prosecutor Sarah Farndon said in making their findings CCC investigators had determined Toland’s evidence was not credible and therefore gave it little weight.

“Her false evidence did not occasion a miscarriage of justice as her evidence was not considered by that body,” she said.

IT DID NOT CAUSE A MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE BUT HAD THE POTENTIAL TO SUBVERT THE HEARINGS JUDGE BRIAN DEVEREAUX