The detective who took over the investigation into alleged fraudster Melissa Caddick's disappearance has told an inquest he didn't re-interview her husband to avoid going through "verbal loops".
Ms Caddick, 49, disappeared from her Dover Heights home in Sydney's eastern suburbs in November 2020, hours after authorities raided it over allegations she was running a Ponzi scheme.
The inquest has heard the alleged fraud was between $20 and $30 million.
Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo took over the investigation about 10 days after Ms Caddick was reported missing.
His view is that Ms Caddick likely took her own life the morning after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) raided her home.
Detective Sergeant Foscholo said although he felt her husband Anthony Koletti "wasn’t a credible witness", and accepted there were "major discrepancies" in his version of events, he didn't re-interview when he took over the case.
"Sometimes it's best to keep your powder dry," he told the inquest.
"I didn't see the value in going through these verbal loops with Mr Koletti."
After Ms Caddick’s foot was discovered on a South Coast beach, the inquest heard senior officers also discussed whether Mr Koletti had any "financial motive".
The inquest heard Ms Caddick had life insurance, that included suicide cover, but Detective Sergeant Foscholo's understanding was Mr Koletti may not have been listed as a beneficiary.
"There didn't seem to be any way in which Mr Koletti would profit from her disappearance."
Earlier, the inquest heard police had only reviewed 20 per cent of the CCTV collected in the first three months after Ms Caddick vanished.
Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins described the review process as "time-consuming and painstaking".
The court heard Inspector Atkins, the Crime Manager of the Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command, was sent an email from the Missing Persons Registry in mid-December 2020 offering extra resources.
It said a unit in the Strategic Intelligence and Capability Command was open to offering any help that might progress the investigation, specifically reviewing CCTV.
Inspector Atkins told the court she couldn't remember if that offer was taken up.
"The priority was to gather as much as you can, because CCTV does disappear quickly, and to review it starting as close to the last known place, so from her home," she said.
"Through the end of 2020 were you comfortable the process of review was going ahead appropriately?" Counsel Assisting Jason Downing SC asked.
"I knew it was moving ahead, it wasn't not being done. I knew that it was being reviewed by the resources we had," the witness replied.
The court heard two injured officers were sent to Bondi police station, solely to review footage.
By the time of a three-month review meeting in February 2021, only 20 per cent of the gathered CCTV footage had been reviewed.
Inspector Atkins said Detective Sergeant Foscholo had been asking for more resources.
"We were quite short-staffed at this point in time," she said.
"He'd been asking for resources, but I gave him what I could at the time."
The court heard the reviewed CCTV was footage from "all around Melissa's home", as well as airports or points of departure.
The court heard her toothbrush was collected for DNA testing at the end of November 2020, but in late January the following year it still hadn't been tested.
Sergeant Foscholo indicated in an email that investigators "haven't had time" to have it examined.
"Did that cause you any concern at all that perhaps he was a little bit swamped with what he was trying to do with the investigation?" Mr Downing asked.
"No, I don't think it concerned me," Inspector Atkins replied.
"I knew the priority was we had the toothbrush, and testing could be undertaken."
The inquest ran for two weeks in September, but hearings went over time and further dates were arranged for Monday and Tuesday this week.
Hearings have run over time again, so another date has been set for February with written submissions to be finalised that month.
