Prosecutors allege man used AI to ‘scrape’ court website, then asked ChatGPT for legal help

A Sydney man charged over a massive data breach involving a NSW courts website allegedly used generative AI to create “scraper” computer code for bulk downloading before asking ChatGPT for legal advice, a court has heard.

Prosecutors will seek to rely on ChatGPT conversations and forensic expert testimony in the case against Christopher John Duff, 40, which is believed to be one of the first of its kind in Australia.

Police previously said cybercrime detectives investigated the alleged unauthorised access of 8,769 restricted documents held by the department’s online registry website between January and March 2025.

The court heard Duff was assisting a friend involved in complicated bankruptcy proceedings. According to police prosecutor Sergeant Andrew Maldigri, the crux of the allegation is that Duff used ChatGPT to code and employ scraper python scripts designed to bulk download data. Defence counsel Daniel McMahon gave a rough estimate that there were some 10,000 or more pages of proposed exhibit material; On Wednesday, he also told the judge that there may not be a dispute, in general terms, that his client was responsible for some of the alleged conduct.

Duff has pleaded not guilty to four counts of accessing restricted data held in a computer which were laid after the Department of Communities and Justice discovered a data breach in March last year.