The ex-Gunns boss is being pursued for the whole amount he gained when he sold 3.4 million shares while privy to price-sensitive information in late 2009.

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions is seeking $3,095,260.06 from Gay for the gross sale from trading the shares - more than three times the estimated loss he avoided.

Appearing in the Supreme Court of Tasmania in Hobart yesterday, counsel for Gay, Neil Clelland, QC, said he would be ‘‘vigorously resisting’’ the figure.

Australia’s corporate watchdog had estimated Gay gained $800,000 from the information, but Justice David Porter - who sentenced Gay - said he was unable to determine an amount.

Mr Clelland said there were no other proceeds of crime cases where the benefit had been calculated as the gross amount.

‘‘We are unable to find anything of this kind,’’ Mr Clelland said.

Justice Stephen Estcourt has adjourned to decide whether the benefit gained by Gay was the total proceeds of the sale or the amount of loss avoided.

Justice Estcourt said the decision would ‘‘ultimately require more consideration than just me’’.

Gay was fined $50,000 and banned from running companies for five years for the insider trading, a sentence Australian Securities and Investment Commission chairman Greg Medcraft said ‘‘the whole country’’ was disappointed with.

In April last year, Gay won Supreme Court approval to direct a company controlling a $2.9 million turnover timber veneer business, and its owner, a family trustee company.

He was not present in court yesterday, but Mr Clelland said his absence was ‘‘not due to indifference’’ but for medical reasons.

The case returns on April 20.