The Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity (ACLEI) has published a report following an investigation into the alleged unauthorised access and disclosure of information by an officer of the Department of Home Affairs to influence a criminal trial.
The Integrity Commissioner and head of ACLEI, Jaala Hinchcliffe, published the report on ‘Operation Cane’.
According to the Commissioner, Operation Cane was an investigation into whether a former Home Affairs employee, ‘Employee X’, had used their access to the Integrated Client Services Environment (ICSE) system to obtain information about and interfere with witnesses in a criminal trial.
In the course of the investigation, Employee X’s relative and former Home Affairs employee, ‘Employee Y’, was also identified as a person of interest.
“The investigation found evidence of Employee X accessing the ICSE records of at least 20 people or organisations more than 1,000 times, which provided the basis for Ms Hinchcliffe’s finding that Employee X had engaged in corrupt conduct,” the report said.
“However, the investigation did not find evidence of Employee X disclosing the information to interfere with witnesses in a criminal trial.”
It said the investigation also found evidence of Employee Y accessing the ICSE records of four people, including their own record.
“However, due to the circumstances of the matter, which involved a relatively small number of unauthorised accesses, Ms Hinchcliffe decided it was not necessary to make a corruption finding against Employee Y.”
The report said both Employee X and Employee Y pleaded guilty to unauthorised access to restricted data contrary to the Criminal Code.
“Employee X was convicted without passing sentence, upon entering into a recognisance in the amount of $500, on the condition that they be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months,” the report said.
“Employee Y was convicted without passing sentence, upon entering into a recognisance to be of good behaviour for a period of 12 months.”
The 19-page investigation report for Operation Cane is available on the ACLEI website at this PS News link.
