A Melbourne police officer accused of serious misconduct has struggled to explain how he came to have $18,000 in cash stashed in a safe at his home.
Victoria's anti-corruption body IBAC is holding public hearings into allegations Detective Sergeant Wayne Dean took cash payments from a debt collector for pressuring debtors to pay up.
The hearing was told Sergeant Dean hauled debtors in for interviews at a police station and threatened to charge them if they didn't come up with the money.
"The purpose of that was to scare the alleged debtor," counsel assisting the commission Catherine Boston asked.
"No," Sergeant Dean replied.
"All I can say is it wasn't my intention to do that, [the police station] was just somewhere for common ground."
Sergeant Dean conceded that by not recording any of the mediations with debtors, all questioning would be considered inadmissible in a criminal trial.
"I can see now the point being made that it did jeopardise the investigation," he said.
Ms Boston told the hearing IBAC is also examining Sergeant Dean's links to Melbourne mediator Mick Gatto.
"The commission will also examine the appropriateness of some of Mr Dean's relationships including with Mick Gatto and whether Detective Sergeant Dean breached Victoria Police policies relating to hospitality and gifts," Ms Boston said.
The hearing, expected to last two weeks, has not heard evidence Mr Gatto has acted improperly.
Cash payments claimed to be a show of 'gratitude'
Sergeant Dean has admitted accepting cash payments from a man named Bill Meletsis who asked him to help solve several disputes over debts.
"What was your understanding of why he was giving you money," Ms Boston asked.
"As we agreed, gratitude," Sergeant Dean replied.
"For what," Ms Boston asked.
"For doing the investigations," Sergeant Dean replied.
Sergeant Dean said Mr Meletsis gained access to him quicker than the general public might have as a result of the payments.
However, when asked about a recorded conversation where Mr Meletsis promised $3,000 in exchange for video footage, Sergeant Dean denied he had ever been paid that amount and said Mr Meletsis had been exaggerating.
Sergeant Dean initially denied he'd acted inappropriately by investigating the debt disputes, but in Tuesday's hearing he agreed what he had done was wrong.
"Obviously in retrospect, no, it was the wrong thing to do," he said.
Police officer revises origins of mystery cash
Sergeant Dean first learned he was under suspicion when IBAC investigators raided his home in February this year.
They found $18,000 cash in a safe and a further $1,300 when they searched his workplace.
At a private hearing earlier this year Sergeant Dean said the money was savings he had built up over the years.
But at Tuesday's hearing his story had changed.
"Since that last hearing I have had a long time to consider that, where that money had come from," Sergeant Dean said.
He told the commission the cash came from the sale of old red bricks, golf clubs, a motor vehicle and several other household items.
"I did sell, which I thought was amazing, a pergola off the back of the house," he told the hearing.
On several occasions, counsel assisting Ms Boston questioned the truth of the officer's evidence, on one occasion after she had played a tape of a secretly recorded conversation involving Sergeant Dean.
The IBAC commissioner Robert Redlich QC also questioned Sergeant Dean about his attempts to help a client find out who had stolen a stash of illegal tobacco from a storage facility in Thomastown.
"What you were doing was actually aiding and abetting someone engaged in a criminal enterprise," the commission said.
"No, I don't believe I was doing that," Sergeant Dean said.
The commission is also examining allegations the police officer abused his position by accessing the police force's LEAP data system as part of his work for Mr Meletsis.
The hearing continues.
