NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb cans plans for press conference over $11,000 gin and gift box purchase

Police Commissioner Karen Webb will stop giving taxpayer funded alcohol as gifts, after facing more than 48 hours of scrutiny over an $11,000 purchase of gin and oak gift boxes.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb will stop giving taxpayer funded alcohol as gifts, banning the practice after facing more than 48 hours of scrutiny over an $11,000 purchase of gin and oak gift boxes.

Commissioner Webb called Minister Yasmin Catley on Thursday morning, to advise her that the practice of giving alcohol as gifts has ceased.

The ban on giving alcohol as gifts means more than $2000 worth of “Commissioner’s Gin” will remain in limbo. Ms Webb told 2GB on Wednesday that she had handed out 24 of 50 bottles purchased, leaving 26 unaccounted for.

Under the ban she will seemingly be prevented from handing it out.

Commissioner Webb was expected to hold a press conference today to attempt to justify spending more than $11,000 on gin and gift boxes from a family friend.

The state’s top cop has come under increasing pressure about the purchasing of 50 bottles of gin from Hope Estate distillery after The Daily Telegraph obtained a copy of the invoice paid by taxpayers.

Senior police and government sources, on Thursday morning expected Ms Webb would front the media, alongside minister Yasmin Catley, who received a bottle of gin. However by 1.30pm it appeared the media appearance, where Ms Webb would be held to account over her secrecy surrounding the commissioners gin affair, had been called off.

Commissioner Webb’s claims on radio that she did not know where 50 bottles of gin were coming from until after they were purchased, appear to be at odds with comments by the distillery owner - in his discussions with The Daily Telegraph.

Police Commissioner Karen Webb.

The invoice for the purchases.

Michael Hope owner of the Hope Estate in Pokolbin.

Michael Hope, owner of Hope Estate winery and distillery, and a long term friend of Karen Webb and her husband Marc, told The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday that when she took over from former Commissioner Mick Fuller she spoke with him about continuing his tradition of giving alcohol as gifts to dignitaries and charities.

“When Karen became commissioner she said she wanted to continue the tradition but was thinking of doing it with gin,” Mr Hope said.

However, on Wednesday afternoon, Commissioner Webb contradicted this when talking to 2GB’s Chris O’Keefe, saying she only became aware “after” the purchase that she “knew the supplier”.

Webb: “I became aware after that I knew the supplier, and, you know I should have said so but certainly I didn’t organise the purchase and I became aware after.”

O’Keefe: “Was it the same supplier as Commissioner Fuller used?”

Webb: “Yes it was so it was just using an existing vendor to make, I presume, an easier transaction.”

A LECC investigation into the purchase of 50 bottles of gin and an accompanying 200 oak gift boxes, at a total cost of more than $11,000 to the taxpayer, criticised Commissioner Webb for not declaring her association with Mr Hope.

The LECC said the evidence did “not support a finding of serious misconduct against Commissioner Webb or any other police officer”.

“The Commission is satisfied that the purchase was in accordance with policies and procedure,” it said.

Mr Hope told The Telegraph he was never interviewed by the investigative body.

Originally published as NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb cans plans for press conference over $11,000 gin and gift box purchase