AAP
Federal MP Craig Thomson has been ordered not to contact employees, owners or contractors of several brothels and escort services related to his fraud charges.
A further five charges of fraud were laid against the MP, who has been suspended from the ALP, on Wednesday taking the total number of charges he faces to 154.
Thomson sat beside his wife in the front row of the courtroom in the Melbourne Magistrates Court, after vowing to reporters that he will defend the charges.
Thomson only spoke when asked by Magistrate Donna Bakos whether he understood the varied conditions of his bail.
He stood and replied: "Yes I do your honour".
He was ordered to reappear for a committal mention on May 22.
Under varied bail conditions Thomson must notify police of any trips interstate or overseas unless he is going to Canberra for parliamentary business.
He was prohibited from knowingly contacting, either directly or indirectly, any person that was an owner, employee or contractor between 2003 and 2007 of several businesses including Tiffany Girls, Young Blondes and A Touch of Class.
Thomson's lawyer Bill Dwyer earlier told Ms Bakos that claims in the warrant for arrest that Thomson had been avoiding service of the summons and not making himself available to police were untrue.
"That's simply not accepted," Mr Dwyer said.
"He was always available.
"Police were well aware he was."
Ms Bakos said the court was not concerned with his comments because it had heard no such allegation from the prosecution.
"He is here, he's answered his bail, that is all this court is concerned about," Ms Bakos said.
Mr Dwyer said his client had had the matters hanging over his head for a long time.
"He is anxious to get these matters resolved," he says.
Outside court, Thomson told reporters it was disappointing that police could still not provide a list of the witnesses in the case.
But he said he wanted to clear his name as quickly as possible.
"What was disappointing about today was of course, it became clear that not only was last Thursday wrongly done by the police but after 18 months in relation to investigating this matter, they still don't even have witnesses that they're able to produce for us," he said.
"That's disappointing.
"It wasn't encouraging that the police still aren't even ready after all this time.
"We're trying to get on with this as quickly as we can."
Thomson said he would not make any further comment given the matter was before the courts.
He joked about the size of the media scrum.
"You'd think it's (the) AFL grand final with all you blokes here," he said.
"I'm sure you'll all be back here on the 22nd.
"Talk to you then."
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