Former union boss Kathy Jackson pleads guilty to abusing $ 68,000 in union funds

Former Health Services Union boss Kathy Jackson pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $ 68,000 in union funds

Jackson, who was indicted after a Royal Commission investigation into union corruption, pleaded guilty to two counts of obtaining a financial advantage by deception in Victoria County Court on Monday afternoon

The CBA can now also reveal that in December 2019 a jury found Jackson guilty of two criminal charges relating to his tenure as head of the besieged health union

These proceedings and this decision were the subject of a publication ban as Jackson faced a second trial But Monday’s guilty plea means the trial will not take place

The former union boss was first tried for 21 offenses after she was accused of embezzling more than $ 480,000 from the Health Services Union (HSU) between 2003 and 2011

Police alleged she spent $ 100,000 on travel, including trips to Hong Kong and Las Vegas, where she stayed at the Bellagio, a luxury hotel and resort

In her first trial in December last year, prosecutors accused Jackson of transferring large sums of money from union coffers to an account she controlled and spent « at her discretion »

« It was backstage for its own promotion, » Crown Attorney Mark Gibson QC said at trial

« She knew full well that she had no legal right to use other people’s money at her discretion in this way

« Evidence of this secret non-union account was used for personal lifestyle expenses, to draw down on his mortgage, to pay into his own savings account or joint savings account », a- he declared

Court heard Jackson deceived the union accountant who was « completely dependent » on her information and tried to cover up her « dishonest and criminal conduct »

In December, a jury found Jackson guilty of causing the union to credit her personal account with more than $ 13,000 for a trip she took to the United States

She was also found guilty of using union funds to pay off a $ 22,000 debt held by her ex-husband, Jeffrey Jackson

In 2015, Jackson was ordered to pay HSU $ 1.4million in compensation for embezzlement, after the union sued him in Federal Court

In this case, the union alleged that it had created a slush fund with the proceeds of a settlement with the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Melbourne

On Monday, she pleaded guilty to embezzling nearly $ 68,000 in union funds between 2003 and 2010

She admitted to deceiving the union by making them pay $ 56,273 for her « travel related purchases » and $ 11,519 for her « personal effects »

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Kathy Jackson, Health Services Union East, Michael Williamson