Justice Michael Ball said that Chubb had already paid $1,248,377.83 in legal bills for the ICAC inquiry leaving an amount of $751,622.17 to meet all outstanding claims, including Mr Ransley's.

In a separate court action last year, it was revealed that fellow Doyles Creek director Andrew Poole had racked up legal bills of $658,745.16 during the course of the ICAC inquiry.

On that occasion Chubb tried – unsuccessfully – to have the Doyles Creek insurance policy declared invalid on the basis that Mr Poole had engaged in "fraudulent non-disclosure".

Chubb argued that Mr Poole "knew there was a possibility of an investigation by ICAC into the circumstances of the grant of the [exploration licence]…and knew that this was a matter relevant to Chubb's decision whether to accept the risk."

In finding for Mr Poole, Supreme Court judge James Stevenson said his judgment was based on "the evidence before me" rather than on evidence given at ICAC which the judge explained had different rules concerning the admissibility of evidence.