That ‘‘flavour’’ came in the saucy details of the alleged misuse of Health Services Union credit cards on escort agencies, sex workers and pornographic movies in hotel rooms while on work trips. The red turbo spa room. There were sex workers Tracie and Alina. Mr Thomson’s alleged alias of ‘‘Jeff Thomson’’ when paying for sex. Escort agencies Young Blondes, Misbehaving, Double Your Luck, Two’s Company and Tiffany’s Girls, which had its own ‘‘red turbo spa room’’, which Mr Thomson allegedly visited in June 2005, during a visit to Sydney to attend an ALP conference.

‘‘I’m certainly getting the flavour,’’ Mr Rozencwajg said at one point. Mr Thomson, 49, is accused of using HSU credit cards and a Flight Centre account to accrue more than $28,000 of personal expenses during his time as the union’s national secretary from October 2002 to December 2007. He has pleaded not guilty to 145 fraud and theft charges, after 79 were dismissed on Tuesday. Ms Taylor said the offending continued to February 2008, three months into Mr Thomson’s term as Labor member for the NSW seat of Dobell, by which stage he was not authorised to use the credit cards. The prosecutor said Mr Thomson breached HSU rules he himself documented in 2005 by using the union funds – money contributed by union members – for escort services, movies, food and drink, car hire, parking, and flights and cigarettes for his then wife, Christa.

He repeatedly directed HSU accounts staff to list the spending under various guises of union-related expenses, the court heard. The court heard that in 2005 Mr Thomson used HSU funds for expenses when he and his then wife visited the NSW central coast to inspect properties. The couple later moved there. Mr Thomson, who turned independent last year but lost his seat in September’s election, sat, unmoved, as the opening was read. The case resumes on Thursday.