Note Printing Australia has been ordered to foot the legal bills of its former chief executive as he is hauled through the courts on foreign bribery charges.

John Leckenby, who led the Reserve Bank subsidiary in 1998-2004, is facing a string of charges, including that he bribed foreign officials to secure bank note printing contracts for NPA.

The Court of Appeal of the Supreme Court of Victoria has dismissed an appeal by NPA against paying in advance Leckenby’s considerable legal bills from the protracted legal process than began in 2011.

[Related: See you in court!]

He had demanded NPA honour a deed of indemnity, signed in 2001, covering him for any legal costs that might arise from his duties, while the company argued it was only required to reimburse him at the end of the trial if he was acquitted.

Leckenby will have to reimburse NPA if he is found guilty, but does not have to offer any security against such a possible refund.

Since the matter has been running for so long and is not due to go to trial until late this year, the bills are likely to run into hundreds of thousands.

The charges include bribery and conspiracy to bribe officials in Nepal, Malaysia, and Indonesia, and false accounting including creating a false invoice for $260,000 in 2003.

Leckenby and eight other executives are the first people to be charged under Australia’s foreign bribery legislation.

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