NSW Supreme Court Justice Michael Slattery on Friday made findings of serious misconduct against Secure Logic’s former chief operating officer Paul Noble and issued a permanent injunction against Noble and former business development manager John Pankhurst for their misappropriation of Secure Logic business data.

Noble also faces a possible contempt of court charge for destroying evidence in the case, but the company’s own conduct could be the subject of investigation by the federal Attorney-General.

Justice Slattery referred his reasons to the Attorney-General for possible action over Secure Logic’s surveillance of Noble and his company, which included embedding spyware into his personal laptop. The judge also referred his reasons to the Prothonotary to weigh action for contempt of court against Noble, who mechanically shredded his personal laptop containing the confidential infomation at the centre of the case.

Noble admitted to destroying the laptop but argued there was an innocent explanation and denied the destruction was intended to thwart the court’s proposed orders for production of the information or to misuse Secure Logic’s confidential information.

In cross claims, Noble alleged Secure Logic chief executive officer Santosh Devaraj engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct by representing to him that he would be given a $10 million shareholding in the company’s Singapore unit. The company was also on the hook for unpaid wages and entitlements under his employment contract, he claimed.

Secure Logic said in response to the cross claims that it would pay the disputed wages, but denied Noble was owed any other entitlements or to an issue of shares in SL Singapore or SL Australia.

The court heard that Devaraj, who became suspicious in May 2016 that Noble was misusing confidential information, authorised other employees to conduct covert surveillance of Noble’s work laptop, personal laptop and a personal website that Noble operated through his family company, co-respondent Peach Tree Bay Pty Ltd.

That month Noble copied from SL Australia’s server a “substantial quantity” of Secure Logic’s business records to have “at his disposal” once he left Secure Logic, the court heard. Noble also sent an email to Pankhurst, with whom he had arranged to leave the company, which contained a client contact list. Noble was terminated after the copying was discovered.

Noble later argued to the court that Devaraj and Secure Logic breached the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005 by authorising the surveillance and that all evidence traceable to that surveillance was illegally obtained and inadmissible.

Devaraj claimed he had no knowledge of the WS Act and the company did not make an application to a Magistrate under the Act to conduct surveillance on Noble.

Secure Logic and its subsidiaries sued Noble, Pankhurst and Peach Tree Bay in June 2016, seeking a permanent injunction for alleged misuse of its confidential information, which included business strategies and pricing data.

Noble and Peach Tree admitted they held the confidential information on a work and personal laptop but denied any misuse. Noble also admitted he shredded the hard drive on his personal computer after the suit was filed, on the oral advice of a solicitor and friend, John Giorgiutti. But he denied this was an attempt to conceal misuse of the data.

Justice Slattery found Giorgiutti, a former principal solicitor with the NSW Crime Commission, was not given full and frank information when he gave Noble the advice to destroy the drive.

Noble told Mr Giorgiutti that Secure Logic had hacked into his personal laptop and that he had arranged the hard drive to be imaged. He omitted key information, the court found, which included Secure Logic’s suit against Noble, its claim that Noble had improperly obtained confidential information, the company’s pending application for production of the laptop and the fact that Noble had a large quantity of Secure Logic’s business records on the computer

“The court infers that Mr Noble made a deliberate choice not to give Mr Giorgiutti this information. Mr Noble well knew that to give Mr Giorgiutti this information would be likely to generate the kind of legal advice that Mr Noble did not want to hear,” Justice Slattery said.

In issuing the injunction, Justice Slattery said Noble was not a credible witness and failed to sway the court from the “obvious inference” that he copied Secure Logic’s data onto an external storage device before mechanically shredding the hard drive.

“Mr Noble’s conduct in destroying the trail of evidence that would potentially show such a transfer is a strong basis to infer that such a transfer probably occurred,” he said.

Noble also failed to establish that any of the evidence relied on by Secure Logic was tainted by its covert surveillance of him, but the judge did find that the company’s installation of a key-logger program into Noble’s work laptop on May 18, 2016, which continuously tracked his computer usage, breached the WS Act. The judge also said May 23 surveillance of Peach Tree Bay’s email accounts may have breached the Criminal Code.

“The court cannot condone contraventions of Australian law. Whether offences have indeed occurred and whether further action is required is for others to investigate. The court refers these reasons to the Commonwealth Attorney General for her consideration as to whether any further action should be taken against any person under the Criminal Code Act, s 478.1 in respect of the 23 May conduct,” he said.

Section 478.1 of the Criminal Code makes it a crime to access or modify without authority data held on a computer restricted by an access control system.

The court also found Secure Logic owed Noble unpaid reimbursement of general expenses, annual leave and bonuses.

Secure Logic is represented by Michael Elliott SC and Sam Hallahan instructed by McCabes Lawyers. Noble and Peach Tree Bay are represented by Benjamin DeBuse, instructed by Laxon Lex Lawyers. John Pankhurst was self-represented.

The case is Secure Logic Pty Limited v Paul William Noble.