A former NSW union boss and his son have been sentenced to 10 months and six months in prison over their receipt of corrupt bribes.<\/p>\n
A Sydney court heard Darren Greenfield “gave in to temptation” when he accepted a total of $20,000 in cash on four separate occasions between 2018 and 2020.<\/p>\n
But it was an “aberration” after years of service to the members of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) \u00a0and their rights, his lawyer, Michael Ainsworth, told a judge last week.<\/p>\n
In April, the 60-year-old, who was the union’s NSW secretary at the time, pleaded guilty to two counts of receiving or soliciting a corrupt benefit and upon sentencing he asked the court to take into account two further charges.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darren’s son, Michael, 40, was the union’s state branch assistant secretary at the time of the crimes. (ABC News: Jamie McKinnell)<\/p>\n
His son, former state branch assistant secretary Michael Greenfield, admitted to an offence over a false statutory declaration about who was driving a CFMEU vehicle when he received a fine for a red light infringement.<\/p>\n
The 40-year-old also accepted two cash payments totalling $10,000 in 2019.<\/p>\n
The NSW District Court heard the bribes were intended to provide a “pathway” for a competitive advantage in the tendering of various jobs around Sydney.<\/p>\n
Both men sentences reduced after guilty plea<\/p>\n
Judge Leonie Flannery on Friday accepted Darren Greenfield did not seek out the money, but accepted it in moments of weakness.<\/p>\n
She said it “certainly wasn’t entrenched behaviour, and it was far from sophisticated”, making similar findings in relation to the younger Greenfield.<\/p>\n
“I take into account that bribery, by its very nature, tends to distort markets by giving a competitive advantage to the person who makes the most substantial bribe,” Judge Flannery said.<\/p>\n
She said it also tended to undermine the integrity of the union, but accepted both of the men were contrite and remorseful.<\/p>\n
The judge handed Darren Greenfield a prison term that would not have expired until May 2028, but directed that he be released after 10 months upon entering into an agreement to be of good behaviour.<\/p>\n
Although Michael Greenfield’s sentence does not expire until May 2027, the judge made a similar order that he be released after six months.<\/p>\n
Both of the men received a 25 per cent discount on sentence for their guilty pleas.<\/p>\n
Last week, Mr Ainsworth said his clients had since become a “lightening rod for people’s general dissatisfaction for the union movement”, but in comparison to the money generated by the construction industry, the separate $5,000 amounts were not significant.<\/p>\n
Crime a ‘blemish or aberration’, pair’s lawyer says<\/p>\n
In arguing for both of his “contrite” clients to be spared from serving their sentences in full-time custody, Mr Ainsworth said they were at no risk of reoffending and the crimes were “incredibly insular” in nature.<\/p>\n
Darren Greenfield had given “many, many years” to the union, he said, including advocating for the rights of workers and their entitlements along with “relentless” pursuits to claw back money when companies went into liquidation.<\/p>\n
“He describes this as a blemish or aberration, [he] gave in to temptation in relation to these payments,” Mr Ainsworth told the judge.<\/p>\n
Mr Greenfield’s son was “unemployable across the building and construction industry”, the court was told.<\/p>\n
Crown Prosecutor Sophie Callan SC said the crimes “adversely impacted on the integrity of the CFMEU” and, as union officials, the two were “inherently more culpable”.<\/p>\n
“While not very sophisticated offending, it was part of a course of conduct that was planned and executed, we say, by the offender [Darren Greenfield],” she said.<\/p>\n
The agreed facts showed “complacency and arrogance” in the bribes being accepted in the CFMEU office as bundles of cash, she argued.<\/p>\n
In relation to the false statutory declaration offence, Michael Greenfield took advantage of his position by specifically seeking out someone “vulnerable” \u2014 either an illegal worker or someone on a visa to take the hit on their demerit points, Ms Callan said.<\/p>\n
Michael Greenfield considered that his offending was “the biggest mistake in his life”, the court heard.<\/p>\n
Union welcomes decision<\/p>\n
CFMEU NSW executive director Michael Crosby welcomed the court’s decision, saying the Greenfields had “betrayed the members of our union in the most fundamental of ways possible”.<\/p>\n
“They took money from an employer on the obvious understanding that the employer would receive favourable treatment from the union,” Mr Crosby said in a statement.<\/p>\n
“Favourable treatment is a euphemism. It actually means that that employer could rely on a special relationship with the Greenfields.”<\/p>\n
Mr Crosby also thanked police and prosecutors.<\/p>\n
“We expect the Administrator of the union will expel these two from membership of the union,” Mr Crosby added.<\/p>\n
“The construction union in NSW is rebuilding. Corruption is gone along with the Greenfield regime.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former NSW union boss and his son have been sentenced to 10 months and six months in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299501,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[171238,171228,171234,171237,171232,171230,171229,171233,43,171236,171235,171231,44,44035,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-299500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-cfmeu-nsw-executive-director-michael-crosby","tag-cfmeu-official","tag-corrupt-bribes","tag-crown-prosecutor-sophie-callan-sc","tag-darren-and-michael-greenfield","tag-darren-greenfield","tag-father-and-son-cfmeu-officials","tag-father-and-son-cfmeu-officials-sentenced","tag-headlines","tag-judge-leonie-flannery","tag-lawyer-michael-ainsworth","tag-michael-greenfield","tag-news","tag-nsw-district-court","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299500"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299500\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299501"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}