A highly decorated police inspector has admitted he lied under oath to the state’s anti-corruption watchdog after being caught with a mobile phone he told them he had destroyed.

David Manly, of Lara, faced the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday after being swept up into an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) investigation targeting a female police colleague.

Inspector David Manly arrives at court on Wednesday. Credit:Joe Armao

The court heard that Inspector Manly, a married 74-year-old, had used the mobile phone to contact Sergeant Rosa Rossi over more than six years and that he panicked and hid the phone when IBAC officers came knocking because his wife was home.

The IBAC officers began investigating 56-year-old Sergeant Rossi, who worked in the Wyndham area, in April 2017 after learning of allegations that she had fraudulently taken ownership of six vacant properties, rorted Centrelink, stolen mail and made false claims to bank staff that she was someone else.