V/Line CEO told cleaning boss COVID-19 could boost coffers, IBAC hears

He told the IBAC hearing he used a burner phone between 2016-2020 to talk to Metro operational fleet manager Peter Bollas and Mr Haritos about a legal gambling syndicate they were a part of. All three men, who called each other "musketeers", will face the hearings this week.

Mr Bollas, who managed Metro's cleaning, is also accused of receiving cash payments from Transclean.

In a March 10 intercepted phone conversation between Mr Pinder and Mr Haritos, played to the live-streamed hearings, Mr Pinder said: "This coronavirus ... it's an opportunity, isn't it?"

Mr Pinder told Mr Haritos trains would need to be cleaned every six hours due to the pandemic. "I'm thinking it's an opportunity to throw a bit of extra you-know-what," he said.

Mr Haritos asked about the budget for the work.

"I'm going to push my lot," Mr Pinder said. "I've got to get the government to give us some cash and if I can do that, then everything's good."

Counsel assisting IBAC Paul Lawrie said: "You're talking about extra cleaning work that comes with the requirements to provide a safer environment during the COVID response aren’t you?"

Mr Pinder claimed he was merely giving the contractor a "heads up" about the extra work.

"You have a whole organisational structure beneath you to look after the management of this contract," Mr Lawrie said. "There would be no conceivable reason for you to be personally involved in this in your role as CEO of V/Line, would there?"

Mr Pinder denied the conversation was unusual and said the only reason the board would disapprove of it was because he swore and was "familiar" with Mr Haritos.

"In this industry, everybody talks about everything all the time and everyone is connected and these sorts of conversations happen hundreds of times every day," he said.

Covert photos tendered also showed Mr Pinder allegedly receiving $10,000 in cash from Mr Haritos near a Williamstown coffee shop on August 19 this year, which Mr Pinder said were earnings from the gambling syndicate.

Separate footage of the first of two IBAC raids of Mr Pinder's home shows him dropping the burner phone and the envelope with $10,000 behind his door, as officers arrived at his doorstep in August. He did not direct officers to the items and told them he did not know what they were when they were discovered by IBAC investigators.

The inquiry also heard Mr Pinder wrote a series of hand-written letters intended for Mr Haritos passed via a Transclean employee after he was raided in which he proposed a set of narratives about why he had the burner phone and the $10,000.

Mr Pinder allegedly warned Mr Haritos that their conversations would be tapped by IBAC and they should use WhatsApp to communicate, the inquiry heard. He said the IBAC probe "may not end well, prepare for the worst, we need to stick together," the inquiry heard.

Mr Pinder was given a second burner phone from the Transclean associate after the first phone was seized in the August raid. The second phone was seized in another raid in October.

The hearings continue.