In caffeine-mad Melbourne it's hardly surprising that a key moment in a police corruption hearing this week turned on the value of a coffee.
But not just any old coffee.
Victoria's Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) was examining allegations 37-year police veteran Wayne Dean acted as a standover man for a Melbourne debt collector between 2018 and February this year.
Over a marathon four-day stint in the witness box, Detective Sergeant Dean was forced to admit he had repeatedly misused his position as a police officer by accepting cash from a debt collector.
Counsel assisting the commission Catherine Boston told the hearing Mr Dean would haul debtors in for interviews at a police station and threaten to charge them if they didn't pay up.
But just how much money he made in his more than three-year relationship with debt collector Bill Meletsis is a central question at the public hearing.
Telling an associate about the cash he had received on one job via WhatsApp, Mr Dean's message read:
"He gave me 3 coffee."
Commissioner Robert Redlich, QC, was curious to know what '"3 coffee" actually meant.
"The word coffee we have seen that a few times in various conversations, that's a description of a money payment?" Mr Redlich asked.
With a nod of his head Mr Dean confirmed "coffee" was indeed code for "cash".
"Is it $100 or a $1,000?" Mr Redlich wanted to know. "What's a coffee worth?"
"I think it's about $50 a coffee," was Mr Dean's answer.
Ms Boston wasn't convinced.
Catherine Boston: Is that the truth Mr Dean?
Wayne Dean: Well it varies, three coffees is $150 dollars, it could have been $180, could have been $200.
Ms Boston: Or $300?
Mr Dean: It could have been $300.
The shifting origins of thousands in cash
Mr Dean's inability to recall how much "coffee" he received from Bill Meletsis was a constant feature of the hearing.
Ms Boston produced recorded phone conversations, emails and text messages that suggested Mr Meletsis had in fact paid the detective thousands of dollars each time he'd helped recover a debt.
Ms Boston: But you maintain that you were never paid more than $200 for jobs that you carried out.
Mr Dean: No way did I get $3,000.
But he struggled to explain why $18,000 in cash was found in a safe at his home when IBAC investigators came calling in February this year.
Ms Boston told the commission Mr Dean initially told investigators the money was savings he had built up over the years.
By the time Mr Dean entered the witness box at the public hearing on Tuesday, his story had changed.
Ms Boston: Isn't it the case that you've realised since the private hearing that the explanation you gave there was demonstrably false and could be proved to be false upon any cursory examination of your financial statements?
Mr Dean: I think the answer I gave at the private hearing wasn't a good answer.
He now says the money came from the sale of various items he owned, including old bricks, golf clubs and a car.
He also sold parts of his house on eBay.
"I did sell, which I thought was amazing, I sold a pergola off the back of the house," he told the hearing.
Connection with Mick Gatto explored
Some of the most extraordinary exchanges between Ms Boston and the detective came when Mr Dean was asked about his friendship with Melbourne mediator Mick Gatto.
Mr Dean had known Mr Gatto for decades after an early stint as a detective in Carlton.
"My relationship with Mr Gatto is one of respect to each other, I suppose is the word," the detective told the hearing. "I don't ask anything of him; he never asks anything of me."
Despite their relationship, it seems Mr Dean was unaware of Mr Gatto's criminal history.
Ms Boston: You didn't know that he had a, up until 2016, a four-page criminal history with firearms and other weapons offences, gaming offences, dishonesty offences and assault offences, including assaulting police?
Mr Dean: No, I didn't know. I've never checked him.
Ms Boston: What I'm putting to you is it is completely implausible that you were unaware that this man had a criminal history.
Mr Dean: Look, I did not know he had a criminal history.
Although Mr Dean maintained he and Mr Gatto never asked each other for anything, the hearing was told Mr Gatto disagrees.
Mr Redlich revealed Mr Gatto had already given evidence, telling the commission he once rang Mr Dean and asked for information about two police officers who had interviewed him.
Mr Redlich: Do you have a recollection of such a phone call?
Mr Dean: No, I don't.
Mr Redlich: I think he [Gatto] described the officers as Starsky and Hutch … you don't have any memory of him asking you to do that, to make some enquiries?
Mr Dean: No
Emotional end to hearings
Mr Dean faces the possibility of being charged with serious misconduct once the commission investigation is complete.
He told the hearing he should never have accepted cash from Mr Meletsis, a man he knew had a criminal history.
Mr Dean agreed his efforts to pressure debtors to pay up amounted to an abuse of his position as a police officer.
The commission is also investigating allegations Mr Dean accessed Victoria Police's LEAP data system without authorisation and passed on documents to third parties without permission.
Although he denies the scale of the allegations documented by Ms Boston, at the end of his time in the witness box Mr Dean was in tears as he acknowledged his behaviour was wrong.
"I do apologise to Victoria Police, I do apologise to the public. What I really apologise for is to my family."
It's a humiliating end to a police career lasting almost four decades.
"As I said to a few people, you are only as good as your last game and my last game hasn't been a good one."
