Former head of CFMEU training ‘out of pocket’ despite invoices fraud

The former head of the CFMEU’s training unit has admitted duping businesses with fake invoices to send him thousands of dollars as he tried to recoup money for car modifications.

Steven Deer was convicted and fined $2250 at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Friday after pleading guilty to a single charge of obtaining property by deception.

Taskforce Hawk detectives arrested him last November amid ongoing allegations of misconduct within the CFMEU.

Defence barrister Neville Rudston said the crime stemmed from Deer’s responsibility for the CFMEU’s traffic training, which required he upgrade the unit’s vehicles.

Rudston said the union told Deer it didn’t have money for new cars, so the 63-year-old “put his hand in his pocket” and spent about $20,000 to buy and modify a Ford Falcon XR6 and two smart cars.

The court heard Deer later asked four labour hire companies if they would pay for their logos to be plastered on the donated vehicles, as he sought to recoup cash.

He sent seven invoices with a CFMEU letterhead to the companies asking for payment to an account named “CFMEU Education and Training Traffic Fund”.

However, the court heard, the account name was fake and Deer had included his personal bank account as the payment details.

“Each company agreed to sponsoring the vehicle[s] but were all unaware that the accused had no permission to do so and believed they were paying the CFMEU, not the accused[’s] personal ANZ account,” a summary of the offending said.

Prosecutor Alex Turner said Deer deceived the companies to gain $10,000, despite Deer’s protests that they “knew he was doing this personally and it was not for the union”.

“This is, we say, calculated behaviour,” Turner said. “There is an element of sophistication to it.”

Rudston pushed for his client to avoid conviction as he argued Deer did not seek to profit personally, had no prior criminal history and that he was unemployable because of media attention around the case.

“Unusually for a fraud, he’s down more money than he ever got back,” Rudston told the court.

Deer closed his eyes and gently shook his head as magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano described the offending as a serious breach of trust.

“This is not one-off, or spur of the moment, offending,” he said.

Caltabiano accepted the media attention on Deer due to his CFMEU links had affected him.

“However, whilst that may have arisen due to the identity of the employer, I accept it’s a part of the open courts, which is designed to promote the transparency of the justice system,” the magistrate said.

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