Former Liberal MP Andrew Laming has been fined $20,000 over social media posts published in the lead-up to the 2019 federal election.

The Australian Electoral Commission took Dr Laming to the Federal Court accusing him of contravening commonwealth requirements by publishing material under a “Redland Hospital: Let’s fight for fair funding” Facebook page without adequately disclosing his political links.

In a judgment published on Wednesday, Justice Darryl Rangiah found Dr Laming contravened law by posting electoral matter on three dates without ensuring his name and the town or city in which he lives were notified.

The electoral commission argued five posts were published in breach of the legislation, but the court found two of those were not electoral material.

Justice Rangiah found one post to be particularly serious.

“It was not merely a case of Mr Laming omitting to notify his name and relevant town or city, but a deliberate attempt to disguise the fact that he was its author,” he said.

“Misleading conduct of that kind strikes at the core of the integrity of our electoral system.”

It was not a case where contraventions occurred in a systemic or organised way and it was unlikely Dr Laming would engage in similar conduct in future, Justice Rangiah said.

However, Dr Laming had pretended posts had been published by someone else and the Facebook page concealed that he was its administrator.

The number of viewers of the posts was not large – six for one post and eight for another. The third post was seen by 14 people with nine of those sharing it.

Justice Rangiah fined Dr Laming $10,000 for one post and $5000 each for two others.

Dr Laming, who was MP for the southeast Queensland seat of Bowman for nearly two decades, but did not stand for re-election last year, told AAP he would appeal the outcome.

– AAP