Northern Territory police chief Reece Kershaw has told a court how "daunting" it was confronting his predecessor John McRoberts over whether he was sexually involved with a woman later jailed for fraud.
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Mr McRoberts is on trial before a jury in the NT Supreme Court charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
He is accused of undermining an investigation into Xana Kamitsis, one of numerous Darwin travel agents who had been rorting a government travel concession scheme.
McRoberts allegedly vetoed a search warrant on Kamitsis' agency, telling senior police in June 2014 detectives had not "reached that threshold" in terms of evidence for a warrant.
The raid finally went ahead five months later when McRoberts was in London and Mr Kershaw was acting police commissioner.
Mr Kershaw said he was contacted afterwards by assistant commissioner Mark Payne, who told him Kamitsis's seized phone contained messages indicating a sexual relationship with McRoberts.
"I asked him to come and attend my office. I was acting deputy, I wasn't a substantive deputy so it was a quite a daunting moment," Mr Kershaw told the court.
"His body language was that he rocked back with arms out, saying words to the effect of, 'it's not true, it's not true' ... He went a little bit pale.
"It was a pretty serious allegation ... if it was true we had a serious problem."
McRoberts has since admitted to an affair with the married Kamitsis.
Mr Kershaw said he had known it at the time he would have had a completely different view about McRoberts's involvement in the travel rorts investigation, including vetoing a warrant.
When asked what experience he had of a police commissioner being in control of and directly reported to on an operation or investigation and whereby deputy commissioners were bypassed, he said: "nil".
Kamitsis and numerous Darwin travel agents rorted the scheme, which aimed to make it easier for pensioners to see relatives interstate, by invoicing the Health Department for more expensive flight costs, while buying cheaper fares and pocketing the difference.
The Health Department has been heavily criticised for poor governance of the scheme.
Australian Associated Press
