By: Andrew Eddy

Mark Kavanagh agreed that he had lied over the reason he bought a second mobile phone on the same day he was informed of his cobalt positive, the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal heard on Monday.

Under cross-examination from Jeff Gleeson, SC, Kavanagh said that several answers he gave to the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board last December on the subject of his mobile phone were untrue.

Kavanagh told the RAD Board and his owners in a letter last summer that he had purchased the second phone because he was concerned about his son Sam’s health and that his son would only speak to him if he purchased a second phone.

Gleeson referred to Sam Kavanagh’s evidence to the current hearing at VCAT in August when Kavanagh said about his father’s comments concerning the reasons for buying a second phone: “He horribly offended me and I was very upset about it,” Sam Kavanagh told the tribunal.

Kavanagh last week told the tribunal that he purchased the second mobile phone on advice from his wife as she had been informed by the wife of jockey Damien Oliver that her husband had feared his phone could have been tapped a few times.

“It is fair to say that your evidence in relation to your second mobile phone has shifted a number of times?” to which Kavanagh answered, ‘Yes’.

Gleeson said Kavanagh had been sent a letter on January 19 – four days after he was informed of his cobalt positive – directing him to surrender his mobile phone(s) and computer(s) but stewards did not learn of the second phone until some time later.

Gleeson said Kavanagh had told the RAD Board that he would have told the stewards about his second mobile phone if they’d asked for it.

“That answer is wrong?” Gleeson asked. “Yes,” Kavanagh answered.

Gleeson said to Kavanagh that if he was utterly innocent and had nothing to hide at the time he purchased the second phone, it made no sense that he would not surrender the information to stewards. “That’s incorrect,” Kavanagh replied.

Kavanagh will continue on the witness stand when the hearing enters its 23rd day on Thursday, with two days set aside in the first week of November for oral submissions.