Former NSW deputy police commissioner Nick Kaldas is threatening legal action over an investigation into the police bugging scandal, claiming the state's ombudsman acted outside his powers in seeking to hunt down whistleblowers who exposed potential police misconduct.
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It is the latest development in the almost two-decades-old police bugging saga that has been a source of bitter tension among the NSW Police Force hierarchy.
Mr Kaldas, a decorated and widely-respected police officer seen as a contender for the top job, bowed out of his high-ranking position in March this year and took up a posting with the United Nations.
Bruce Barbour, the former NSW ombudsman, and Mr Kaldas have long been at loggerheads over Operation Prospect, an investigation led by Mr Barbour into a police internal affairs bugging operation that unfairly targeted Mr Kaldas and many other officers from 1999-2001.
Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Kaldas is poised to launch a Supreme Court case against the Ombudsman's office, seeking a declaration it acted outside its powers in conducting the investigation.
Mr Kaldas is expected to claim Mr Barbour acted outside his jurisdiction by seeking to track down the source of leaks about surveillance operations targeting Mr Kaldas and others.
A spokeswoman for the Ombudsman's office confirmed it had received correspondence from Mr Kaldas.
"We are not aware of proceedings having commenced," she said on Thursday night.
"The Ombudsman has made a progress report on the investigation to the Parliament and that is likely to be made public next week."
Before Mr Kaldas' sudden departure he was seen as one of the obvious successors to Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione, whose contract is up next year.
"It is my intention not to seek to have that renewed," Mr Scipione said this week.
Mr Kaldas' most recent years have been overshadowed by the bugging scandal that involved the state's most senior police, including fellow deputy commissioner Catherine Burn.
Under Operation Mascot, Mr Kaldas had his office at the homicide squad, home and phones bugged.
At the time Ms Burn was an operation team leader. The bugging operation soured the relationship between the two deputies in later years.
The Ombudsman's long-running Operation Prospect has been almost four years in the making.
It was revealed last year that the then-ombudsman Mr Barbour was considering referring Mr Kaldas to the Director of Public Prosecutions to face charges for allegedly misleading an inquiry into the bugging.
Mr Kaldas was alleged to have misled the Ombudsman during a hearing about the source of documents leaked to him in 2012 by former senior NSW crime commission official John Giorgiutti.
Mr Giorgiutti has previously insisted he was a whistleblower and should be subject to protection.
In submissions tendered to a parliamentary inquiry last year, Mr Kaldas argued Operation Prospect was "invalidated and must be held again afresh".
He said the scope of Operation Prospect had been "expanded to include an investigation into who leaked, handled and discussed the incriminating documents revealing the wrongdoing".
"There is significant inconsistency between investigating very serious misconduct ... on the one hand and, on the other hand, investigating the whistleblowing which brought the misconduct to light."
He said it was his "firm view" it was not the government's intention for the Ombudsman to use his powers to "hunt down the whistleblowers".
Fairfax Media understands Mr Kaldas has sought an undertaking from the Ombudsman's office that this will not form part of Operation Prospect's findings. The Supreme Court case has not yet been filed in court.
The case would test the limits of the state's whistleblower protection laws, the Public Interest Disclosures Act, by arguing the Ombudsman's investigation into the source of leaks about surveillance operations amounted to an unlawful reprisal against a whistleblower.
If successful, the court would issue a declaration that the investigation was outside the Ombudsman's powers, preventing any findings from being delivered.
Mr Kaldas' role is yet to be filled permanently, with assistant commissioners rotating through the sought-after job until a replacement is selected.