The conflict over branch stacking in the Victorian division of the Labor Party has intensified, with the party taking legal action to force a dissident member to destroy records he says prove widespread stacking is occurring.

The ABC has been told the party will seek in an injunction in the Supreme Court on Friday to force Eric Dearricott, a rebel member of its administrative committee, to destroy the records, which he says are evidence of the widespread use of pre-paid gift cards to stack Victorian branches.

Mr Dearricott has long agitated against what he claims is the manipulation of party membership to benefit Labor powerbrokers, particularly in the party heartland of the western and northern suburbs of Melbourne.

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Party officials have claimed Mr Dearricott improperly accessed membership records, including names, addresses, payment details and internet protocol addresses, and last month lawyers for the party demanded Mr Dearricott destroy the records.

Mr Dearricott claims he was entitled to access the information, and was actually asked by the party to study the records to determine whether rorting was occurring.

Media reports have alleged widespread use of the pre-paid gift cards — which can be purchased and used without the buyer providing any identification — to sign up ALP members without their knowledge, or to pay for large numbers of memberships to cement control of branches in several Victorian electorates.

However, in leaks to other media outlets, opposing sources apparently aligned to the party hierarchy have denied that the rorting is widespread or systemic, and said the party was working to stamp out the practice.

A recent investigation at the behest of the administrative committee, carried out by the right's Garth Head and the left's Liz Beattie, determined that widespread membership rorting using pre-paid cards was not occurring.

However, critics have suggested Mr Head and Ms Beattie's report did not expose the true extent of the problem.

Legal action comes as party prepares for Wills pre-selection

The ABC revealed earlier this year that a former staffer to party heavyweight Senator Stephen Conroy, Haykel Handal, had been kicked out of the party for using the pre-paid cards to sign up multiple members.

The ABC also revealed that a Moreland City councillor linked to alleged Italian organised crime figures, Michael Teti, used the office of former federal Labor Senator and acolyte of Senator Conroy, Mehmet Tillem, to improperly sign up people to the Labor Party without their knowledge.

The ABC does not suggest Mr Tillem knew of Mr Teti's links to the alleged crime figures or the alleged branch stacking.

The legal action against Mr Dearricott also comes as the party prepares for a potentially bruising pre-selection ballot in the formerly rock-solid Labor-held electorate of Wills.

The pre-selection, triggered by the impending retirement of MP Kelvin Thomson, is shaping up as a battle between Mr Tillem, reviled by some in the party as an archetypal Labor factional operator, and whoever emerges as the candidate of the anti-Tillem forces, who are agitating for a local, female candidate who will hold off the encroaching tide of Greens support.

Federal Labor leader Bill Shorten is usually described as an ally of Senator Conroy's but is believed to be considering backing a female candidate against Mr Tillem, due to Labor's stated goal of women filling 50 per cent of all party positions by 2025.

Both Mr Dearricott and the ALP's state assistant secretary, Kosmos Samaras, have refused to comment.