Mr Kelly said he had three matters before NCAT with two dismissed for procedural reasons. “Those two matters were heard by Senior Member Montgomery earlier this year [and] he stated words to the effect that ‘if you follow the procedure correctly and these matters come before NCAT again, I'll gladly hear them,’” Mr Kelly said.

The third NCAT case against Mr Smith was heard on Friday with a decision reserved that may be published any time in the next three months, Mr Kelly said.

Senior Member Montgomery said in his ruling about costs on Friday, it was “understandable that a self-represented litigant who is not legally qualified might commence proceedings in the Tribunal”, but his application against Ms Szatow, "lacked merit”.

Former Ku-ring-gai mayor Cheryl Szatow told the Herald, “it was just all a nonsense”.

“It’s been quite bizarre, I don’t really understand it,” Ms Szatow said. “It was all false, I've been under siege for a while and it’s good to be vindicated, the whole thing was very unfortunate.

“I knew this was going nowhere, I knew it was without substance, so I stopped being anxious about it and I just let the law take its course.”

All of the councillors involved were contacted for comment.