Craig Thomson says his phone might have been cloned, and that’s why it appears that he made phone calls to brothels. Is it a realistic line of defence?

Thomson is right, of course, to challenge why his innocence or otherwise is being determined through parliament and the press. But he must have known that his list of defensive arguments was bound to invite scrutiny, in particular that big question around phone cloning.

Thomson said he believes that it’s quite easy to do. Really? Phone spoofing is easy — where you cloak your phone identity with a different number — but getting a call to appear on someone else’s bill is a far more complex proposition.

It’s so difficult, according to Chris Gattford, a director of HackLabs, that it’s hard to imagine it’s within the capabilities of anyone at the Health Services Union (HSU).

But it has happened. Robert Siciliano from IDTheftSecurity.com said it happened to him in San Diego. Criminals with a scanner cloned his phone, and were able to duplicate his SIM and IMEI number. As recently as February this year, a $250 million phone-cloning scheme was uncovered in New York.

Perhaps the ultimate proof could come from looking at Thomson’s phone. It could still contain records of the calls he made, and even the ones he deleted. Ed Opperman often retrieves call records to assist with investigations, including his current case, where a 37-year-old massage therapist is allegedly embroiled in a sex scandal with Sarah Palin’s husband. If Thomson wants to prove his innocence, Ed suggests that he sends his phone over to him!

The truth would come out, of course, if the police were able to thoroughly investigate the evidence and present it to court, rather than having parliamentarians reaching conclusions from evidence that is circumstantial at best.