A former WA politician who obstructed a secret corruption investigation into his misuse of his taxpayer-funded electoral allowance for travel and sex, and tipped off others about the probe, has been handed a suspended jail term and fined $12,000.
Phil Edman, a Liberal MP in WA's upper house between 2009 and 2017, had been due to stand trial today in the Perth Magistrates Court, but at the start of proceedings he changed his plea to guilty to the five charges against him.
In 2019, he was one of a number of MPs secretly being investigated by the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) over their use of the $78,000-a-year electoral allowance they received.
Edman was prohibited from discussing the investigation, but in April 2019 when he was illegally told about it, he warned two other upper house MPs about what the CCC was looking at.
Six months later, Edman was called to be questioned at the CCC over three days, and during that time he messaged three people, two of whom were witnesses.
The third was a woman he met on a dating website, seekingarrangements.com, which was described in court as a site for attractive women to meet wealthy gentlemen.
'Potential to undermine CCC': magistrate
Prosecutor Jean Shaw said the arrangement started out with Edman paying her $300 each time they met, but later changed to him paying some of her bills.
The message he sent to her was: "and I paid you?"
The first person he messaged was his electorate officer, who had been ordered to provide a spreadsheet to the CCC, saying "I know CCC talked to you".
The third person was his girlfriend at the time, and the message read "nothing too pornographic", which Ms Shaw said was a reference to an earlier hearing when he was shown a photo he had sent of a naked woman in a hotel room in Canberra.
Magistrate Michelle Harries said the five offences were serious and had "the real potential to undermine the CCC's investigation".
She said the repeated nature of the crimes reflected "a complete disregard for the authority of the CCC and its processes".
Ms Harries also said she was not persuaded Edman had shown any significant remorse for what he had done.
She imposed a seven month suspended jail term for the offence of hindering the CCC, and a $12,000 fine for the other four offences of disclosing restricted information.
He was also ordered to pay $8,263 in court costs.
The CCC tabled its report on the matter in 2020, finding Edman had misused his taxpayer-funded electoral allowance for personal expenses including lavish dinners, the berthing fees for his yacht, visits to strip clubs, and travel and entertainment for women he met on a matchmaking website.
Edman needed CCC training: lawyer
Outside the court, Edman's solicitor Finola Barr, read a statement on his behalf that included a suggestion MPs should be trained in how to deal with the CCC.
"Mr Edman has a positive and commendable record of contribution to his community over many years," Ms Barr said.
"He has always sought to act in the best interests of his constituents and the general public, despite many misleading articles of various media outlets to the contrary since 2019.
"Mr Edman, upon reflecting on the information provided to him by the CCC, and upon advice from his own legal team, has chosen to enter the guilty pleas.
"In pleading guilty to the charges, Mr Edman wishes it to be known that his actions were not in any way malicious or mischievous.
"The significant level of distress experienced by Mr Edman, his family, his friends and business associates cannot be underestimated. At no stage did he set out intentionally or consciously to break the law.
"Given the scope and expense of the CCC investigation into parliamentary allowances, it is in retrospect regrettable that elected state representatives were not given formal training and educated therefore properly and fully in the process in question."
When asked about Edman's sentence today Premier Mark McGowan dismissed the suggestion he needed more training and education.
"I would've thought it's common sense not to use the allowance for the purposes he used it [for]," Mr McGowan said.
"But the decision on his penalty was a matter for the court, I'll leave it to the court."
