THE former Crime Commission investigator Mark Standen was in financial difficulties because he had to pay for braces for his four children, psychiatric treatment and medication for his wife, a big mortgage and to help out family members, the Supreme Court heard yesterday.

''I just want two hundred thousand … if I had a hundred in cash I wouldn't have to panic for, say, another year,'' Mr Standen is heard saying to his alleged co-conspirator Bakhos ''Bill'' Jalalaty in a conversation in a Wahroonga cafe in September 2007.

In the conversation, captured by a listening device inside Mr Standen's mobile phone, the pair discuss a container of rice they were importing which was due to arrive in early October.

It is alleged they were conspiring to import pseudoephedrine and to pervert the course of justice with the former Crime Commission informer and drug dealer James Kinch.

Mr Standen is also accused of planning to take part in the supply of 300 kilograms of pseudoephedrine. When the men were discussing the price of the 17,000 kilograms of rice they were importing in the first container, Mr Standen said: ''Even if there's nothing in it … just for selling a bit of rice'' they stood to make a profit of $17,000. Mr Standen tells Mr Jalalaty he was looking forward to just getting ''the slate clean''.