Red in the face, tears in his eyes and on the verge of a breakdown - that was the state of former NSW RSL president Don Rowe on the day of his resignation, a public inquiry has been told
The league's treasurer at the time, Rod White, was in Mr Rowe's Sydney office to talk about his misuse of expenses when he recognised his colleague was "in a bad way".
"He started to break down...he was red in the face, tears in the eyes," Mr White said on Wednesday.
"I reckon he could have walked out and jumped off the roof."
The startling account comes as the public inquiry, set up by the NSW government after the RSL's misuse of charity funds became public, enters its fourth week before Patricia Bergin SC.
Upon seeing Mr Rowe "on the verge of a breakdown", Mr White told him to walk over to his room at the Hyde Park Inn and put his feet up.
He then suggested Mr Rowe take time off over Christmas to "take care of himself" and recommended seeing a psychologist.
Instead, Mr Rowe resigned.
Mr White's account of that day is starkly different to the one Mr Rowe provided to the inquiry two weeks ago.
At the time of Mr Rowe's resignation in late 2014, ill health was cited as the reason.
He admitted to the inquiry he was given an ultimatum by Mr White to either quit or face an audit into his expenses.
Mr Rowe also confessed to using the charity's cash to pay for his mortgage, family phone bills, flights, meals and accommodation at a Sydney hotel during his 11 years as president.
During his presidency, Mr Rowe was also a director of NSW RSL's aged care arm LifeCare.
In February 2007 LifeCare's directors - including Mr Rowe and Mr White - voted in favour of paying themselves specialist consultancy fees.
The annual fees started at $18,000 in 2007 and in 2016 reached up to $57,172.
The duties of directors and specialist consultants were similar, with the only difference being the addition of "specialist advice" offered by consultants, Mr White says.
He insists the duties he performed justified being paid a special consultants fee, but can't remember exactly what those duties were.
"I'm confident I demonstrated in my actions I was doing other things outside of being a director," Mr White said.
"I can't remember specifically what," he added.
Mr White started receiving $18,000 for his services prior to 2007 because he was already providing "specialist services" to LifeCare from September 2006.
Despite not working as a specialist consultant for the full year, he received the fee for the full 2006/07 year without the approval of directors.
He insists he thought it was the right thing to do at the time.
"I can't justify it... but I believed that this would be correct," he said on Wednesday.
The inquiry continues on Thursday.
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