A SENIOR Crown prosecutor has been named in a broad-scale investigation by ICAC into corruption of the NSW judicial system by barrister John Hart - who allegedly took a $12,000 bribe to make a police investigation "go away".

The state's corruption watchdog heard yesterday that Mr Hart had a "bloke" from the Director of Public Prosecutions - revealed in phone tapped conversions as Crown Prosecutor Gary Corr - who could make sure a gang rape investigation into Wagga Wagga trio Jason Kelly, Christopher Trinder and Jeff Nankievell would not proceed.

"Now, I'm tellin' ya my bloke, Gary Corr who's the, the, it's gotta go through him, he said he won't pursue it, I'm telling ya," Mr Hart was recorded telling Mr Kelly on telephone intercepts.

On a separate occasion Mr Hart said: "I'll tell you my bloke said . . . 'he would not do anything about it'. I'm tellin' ya. All right? That's what we organised'."

ICAC heard Mr Corr would be called and was expected to deny any knowledge of the allegations.

Counsel assisting ICAC David Staehil said the "show money" Mr Hart took from clients was one part of a series of schemes that included defrauding the Attorney General's Department of court costs and lying to have cases moved to more lenient magistrates at country courts.

"At first blush, the circumstances indicate a desire to pervert, or attempt to pervert, the course of justice," Mr Staehil said.

"If such payments in the circumstances described were made to Hart but he never intended they would be passed on to a public officer, then there may be the elements of fraud or false pretences present in the obtaining by him of money from Kelly."

Mr Hart allegedly told Mr Kelly that for $10,000, plus $5000 for a kind of finder's fee to himself, he could make the police investigation go away. He accepted the lesser sum of $12,000, most of which was deposited into his TAB account.

The three Wagga Wagga men were never charged after the investigation into an alleged sexual assault.

Mr Hart and his instructing solicitor Anthony Paul are also alleged to have inflated a claim of court costs from the Attorney-General's Department to $76,008 from the actual costs of just $26,371 in a previous sexual assault against Mr Kelly, who was found not guilty.

Originally published as Lawyers in ICAC bribe claim