Outgoing Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey has conceded it was “maybe” a mistake, in hindsight, to hand Robert Smerdon’s mobile phone back to him rather than having it forensically examined.

Speaking on Melbourne’s RSN radio, Bailey was quizzed on why stewards returned Smerdon’s phone after only a cursory examination on the day of the Aquanita raceday treatment bust at Flemington last spring.

Doper Greg Nelligan’s phone turned up a treasure trove of thousands of explosive messages relating to raceday treatment and now Bailey admits stewards should have kept Smerdon’s phone rather than allowing him to leave with it.

“Maybe we should have in hindsight, knowing what we subsequently knew after Mr Nelligan’s phone was imaged,” Bailey said on RSN.

“I don’t think anyone in their wildest dreams would have suspected what came up on his (Nelligan’s) phone.

“But we made a decision on the day … charges were proven and Mr Smerdon got a life ban.”

The decision by stewards to return Smerdon’s phone without forensic imaging was one of the questions asked on the Four Corners ABC show on Monday night.

Trainer Danny O’Brien also told Four Corners he believed the treatment he received from stewards over his cobalt case was far tougher and more thorough than the more polite approach taken with Smerdon.

In stark contrast to handing Smerdon’s phone back, O’Brien said that when stewards raided his stables in 2015 they locked the stables down for two days and went through every piece of digital technology they could find.

However Bailey, speaking on RSN, claimed there were stark differences in the cases.

“With respect to the Danny O’Brien and (Mark) Kavanagh (cobalt) matters, we had three weeks headstart as far as being notified of irregularities and positive swabs, we had more time to get processes in place,” Bailey said.

“The Aquanita business unfolded in the space of half an hour in space of one of our biggest days.

“It (the differences between investigations of the cases) was purely preparation.”

Trainer Mathew Ellerton told Four Corners he had alerted stewards many years ago of suspicious behaviour at Aquanita.

Bailey says he has no memory of having such a conversation with Ellerton, although he concedes stewards knew of the Aquanita rumours for many years.

“As far as the rumours, we have all heard the rumours but it’s a matter of having the evidence, we eventually got there,” Bailey told RSN.

“We had measures in place for a long time with Aquanita, I must admit it was brazen what they were doing actually at the track, but we certainly weren’t sitting on our hands.

“We knew the rumours and we were doing our best to get the evidence we needed.

“Cases have shown in the past unless you catch them red-handed it is very difficult to prove.”

Smerdon is appealing against his life ban from racing and against his $90,000 fine stemming from the Aquanita affair.

Fellow Group I winning trainer Stuart Webb is also appealing his guilty verdict and the four-year disqualification he was handed for his role in the raceday treatment saga.

They have joined fellow trainers Liam Birchley (banned for one year) and Tony Vasil (banned for three years) in appealing against the findings and the penalties.

Bailey has worked his last day as Victoria’s chief racing steward and will soon take up a post in Singapore.