ICAC raids given go-ahead despite lack of protocol

The NSW ICAC spent years ­obtaining search warrants from the same court official before the practice was formally authorised.

ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham fronting a NSW parliamentary inquiry. Picture: Ross Schultz.

The NSW government’s anti-­corruption agency spent years ­obtaining search warrants from the same court official before the practice was authorised by formal guidelines.

A protocol was issued only in April 2014, requiring the Independent Commission Against Corrup­tion and other agencies to approach deputy registrar Stephen Lister when they wanted permission to conduct raids.

But documents obtained by The Australian show that, in the three years before the protocol came into effect, Mr Lister had authorised eight of the agency’s most high-profile raids. Before April 2014, he had given ICAC permission to conduct raids on businessman Charif Kazal, the family of former NSW politician Eddie Obeid, former NSW politic­ians Darren Webber, Chris Spence and Chris Hartcher, businessman Nick Di Girolamo, and former emergency services commissioner Murray Kear and his deputy Steve Pearce.

ICAC Commissioner Megan Latham has supplied a copy of the protocol to a committee of the NSW parliament after being asked about Mr Lister’s role in ICAC’s failed investigation of prosecutor Margaret Cunneen SC.

Three months after the protocol was issued he approved an ICAC raid of Ms Cunneen’s home in July 2014, and the seizure of her mobile phone despite the fact that it was already in ICAC’s possession.

The search warrant gave ICAC permission to “break open any ­receptacle in or on the premises”.

Ms Latham told a public hearing of the committee last month that the search warrant to seize Ms Cunneen’s phone had been granted by “a judicial officer independent of the commission who was satisfied of the legitimacy of the grounds for the warrant”.

Mr Lister had issued other search warrants for ICAC because “he is the nominated registrar at the Downing Centre for the purposes of agencies like us when we apply for search warrants”.

Extracts from search warrants that were published in The Australian before the hearing show Mr Lister authorised raids for ICAC as far back as May 2011, three years before the protocol was issued.

The protocol, which is on the website of the NSW parliament’s ICAC oversight committee, says agencies seeking search warrants should approach Mr Lister and they will receive prompt attention.

“My guarantee to you is the routine application will be considered that day ... your application will be considered within the hour and in extreme circumstances there may be two to three hours’ delay,” the protocol says.

“Urgent matters will be, ­obviously, considered urgently.”

A spokeswoman for ICAC has rejected any suggestion that the agency had engaged in a practice that was similar to “judge-shopping”.

There is no suggestion that Mr Lister has engaged in wrong­doing.

The parliamentary committee is reviewing a report by the agency’s independent inspector, David Levine, that accuses ICAC of abuse of power and maladministration during the Cunneen investi­gation, which was halted by the High Court because the agency had exceeded its jurisdiction.

Ms Latham has rejected Mr Levine’s criticism and accused him of errors of fact and law.