Received

Further evidence from NSW Police officers will conclude an inquest into the disappearance of Sydney fraudster Melissa Caddick.

Two days after corporate watchdog ASIC and Australian Federal Police officers raided her Dover Heights home, the 49-year-old was reported missing on November 13, 2020, by her husband Anthony Koletti.

Detective Sergeant Michael Kyneur, initially the officer-in-charge of the investigation into her disappearance, said Mr Koletti "always appeared confused".

"He kept on telling me she was going to show up at court and that she had a lot of cash, I think he told me," Det Sgt Kyneur told the inquiry on Monday.

The investigation "did snowball very quickly" after a press conference held a week after Caddick was reported missing.

Det Sgt Kyneur notified the homicide squad the next day and was no longer the officer-in-charge shortly after.

Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins and Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo are scheduled to give further evidence on Tuesday.

Det Insp Atkins told the inquiry in September that Mr Koletti was not considered a suspect.

"There'd been searches at the house, there'd been conversations with Mr Koletti ... there was no evidence of homicide," Det Insp Atkins said.

Detective Chief Inspector Glen Browne, manager of the NSW missing persons registry when Caddick vanished, said on Monday he found out about her disappearance four days after the initial report.

In a conversation with Det Sgt Kyneur, Det Insp Browne reminded him to keep an open mind.

"I got a sense from the conversation that the primary line of inquiry is that Melissa was avoiding being located," Det Insp Browne said.

The theory was "being given more importance than others".

Caddick defrauded family and friends of between $20 million-$30 million in a Ponzi scheme before her disappearance.

Her decomposing foot washed up in a running shoe on the NSW south coast's Bournda Beach in February 2021, some 350 kilometres from the home Caddick was last seen at in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Det Insp Browne said an experiment the inquiry previously heard about, involving pig carcasses being tracked in the water, predated Caddick's disappearance and was never conducted.

There were concerns about what the tracking devices could do to protected great white sharks, he said on Monday.

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The NSW Police officer-in-charge of the investigation into Melissa Caddick's disappearance still believes the fraudster took her own life.

The 49-year-old was reported missing by husband Anthony Koletti on November 13, 2020, two days after corporate watchdog ASIC and Australian Federal Police officers raided her Dover Heights home.

Police gathered a mountain of CCTV footage from surrounding homes.

At a "milestone meeting" with senior police figures on February 15, 2021, Detective Sergeant Michael Foscholo asked for more resources to review the footage looking for any sign of Caddick.

Six days later, Caddick's decomposing foot washed up in a running shoe on the NSW south coast's Bournda Beach, some 350 kilometres from her home in Sydney's eastern suburbs.

Since that grim discovery Australians have been asking each other what they think happened to Caddick.

Det Sgt Foscholo, who took over as the officer-in-charge 10 days into the investigation, was asked just that by Mr Koletti's counsel Judy Swan during an inquest in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Tuesday.

After a brief laugh at Ms Swan's initial question - whether he had ever heard of the expression "someone died of shame" - Det Sgt Foscholo gave his opinion.

"It was clear to me Melissa Caddick's fraudulent activities were one of the catalysts for her disappearance and ultimately the reason, or motive, as to why she committed suicide," he said.

Det Sgt Foscholo said the foot's discovery led to police searching some "specific areas" on the south coast but CCTV had already been gathered from Dover Heights coastal areas and marinas at Rose Bay.

Only about 20 per cent of the footage had been reviewed by the February 15 meeting.

There was no CCTV footage available for the quickest route from Caddick's house to the Rodney Reserve Cliffs, where Det Sgt Foscholo believes Caddick jumped.

"(It's) the closest location to her home and it's open ocean there," he said.

"It's not a bay ... once you hit that open ocean, there's many unknown variables."

Eastern Suburbs Police Area Command Detective Inspector Gretchen Atkins said injured or otherwise restricted officers from the area were assigned to reviewing CCTV from around the Dover Heights home where Caddick was last seen and from airports and other departure points.

"We were quite short staffed at the time," Det Insp Atkins told the inquest on Tuesday.

Det Sgt Foscholo, who took over as officer-in-charge as Caddick's disappearance began attracting widespread attention, wanted more help.

"With the resources I had at my disposal we were pushing through it," he said.

"Extra resources would have been good."

His superior, Det Insp Atkins, said she tried to provide them.

"I gave him what I could at the time," she said.

"It was time consuming and painstaking and he was trying to review it as quickly as possible."

Det Sgt Foscholo told the inquiry his strategy was to immediately "saturate" the area surrounding her home, canvassing for any CCTV that could be useful before it was deleted or overwritten.

But the CCTV was only one part of a complex investigation that was starting to attract widespread attention.

"It was clear to me that Melissa Caddick was not just going to hand herself into a police station," Det Sgt Foscholo said.

Caddick defrauded family and friends of between $20 million-$30 million in a Ponzi scheme before her disappearance.

The inquest will resume in February.

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Almost a quarter of Australian consumers are prepared to slide into debt to cover the festive season as cost of living pressures weigh on household budgets.

Thirteen per cent of Australians will reach for a credit card to pay for gifts and other holiday spending, Finder data shows, with another nine per cent planning to leverage buy now, pay later credit.

"It's been a hard year for many, so coming up short for cash is nothing to be embarrassed about," Finder money expert Rebecca Pike said.

"While it might seem like a good idea at the time, using credit as a means of funding the holiday season if you don't have the cash readily available will only come back to bite you."

The value of purchases made using credit cards hit another record high in September, increasing 31 per cent in 12 months.

More than half of the 1054 people surveyed will reach into their savings to fund the holiday season.

Another 20 per cent don't expect to spend anything extra during the period.

Small businesses are also concerned about the holiday period, with about half worried they won't meet their summer sales targets.

The Xero survey found 28.1 per cent of small businesses were worried the cost of new supplies and equipment would leave them short on their sales targets.

Weekly consumer confidence figures are also due on Tuesday, with the increasingly popular Black Friday sales likely to show up in the scores.

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