Developer gave $20k for budding MPs: ICAC

A property developer has admitted stumping up $10,000 for radio personality Luke Grant to work on ex-MP Tim Owen's election campaign.

Hilton Grugeon also agreed he paid former MP Andrew Cornwell $10,120 for a painting by a local Newcastle artist whose works usually sell for an average of $288.

But it was all above board, he told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).

The Newcastle developer told the NSW corruption watchdog he was well aware in 2011 that, as a developer, he was barred from making political donations.

But a month out from that year's NSW poll, he allegedly attended a meeting with Darren Williams from Nathan Tinkler's development firm Buildev, along with now-Newcastle mayor Jeff McCloy, where Mr Owen's campaign manager Hugh Thomson delivered "a sales pitch".

Mr Thomson extracted a promise from Mr Grugeon, the ICAC heard, to better his candidate's chances with thousands in assistance.

"You came through with the pledge. You made $10,000 available to the Tim Owen campaign, didn't you?" counsel assisting ICAC Geoffrey Watson asked.

"No," Mr Grugeon replied.

But he agreed he did pay radio man Luke Grant - or, the apparently perplexed witness wondered, "was it Hugh Grant?" - for media consultancy services rendered to Mr Thomson.

"(Mr Thomson) said that it was legal because it wasn't a donation," Mr Grugeon said.

"The proposal was that I make that payment and that would not be be wrong under the law."

Mr Grugeon also agreed that it was "most probably" ex-MP Andrew Cornwell who told him he, too, was struggling financially ahead of the NSW election, and that Mr Grugeon might buy an artwork from his collection - a painting by one Rex Newell - to help him out.

He snapped up the Australiana oil for $10,120.

Like Mr Owen, Mr Cornwell resigned earlier this month amid sensational ICAC accusations.

"I did it to show him support," Mr Grugeon said.

"I have never supported anyone for a favour."

Mr Watson called it a "scam".

"This was a fraud - a fraud in which you and Mr Andrew Cornwell agreed to a means so that you could disguise the fact that you were making an illegal contribution," Mr Watson said.

"I don't understand that it's a fraud," Mr Grugeon replied.

The painting of a boat shed at the Tea Gardens, which has since been donated to the Maitland Hospital Foundation, has now cropped up on eBay with a $5000 starting price.

So far, the painting is yet to attract a bid.