 He was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as the Labor Party member for the seat of Mulgoa.He switched to the seat of St Marys in 1991 after Mulgoa was abolished, but his second term was beleaguered by scandal, and then-Opposition Leader Bob Carr forced him to resign at the 1995 election in order to end the associated bad publicity.In 1996, he was found guilty on fraud charges and was sentenced to one year in prison, which on appeal was commuted to community service.