Gay’s counsel, Neil Clelland, QC, told the Supreme Court of Tasmania the inside trader should not have to pay as the shares he sold with inside knowledge for about $3.1 million in December 2009 were sold for less than he paid to buy them.

Mr Clelland said Gay, who was fined $50,000 and banned from running companies for five years in 2013 after he pleaded guilty to inside trading, did not profit from selling the shares.

He said punishing Gay further for selling the shares while he possessed information that was not made publically available until February 2010, could represent a kind of ‘‘double jeopardy’’.

Federal prosecutors argued Gay should pay the difference between the December 2009 price and what the shares would have fetched after the information was made available to the public.

That difference is worth about $600,000, according to prosecutors.

Prosecutor David Staehli, SC, told Justice Estcourt Gunns Ltd’s share price had dropped from 87.5¢ in December 2009 to 68.5¢ in February 2010, when Gay would have been able to legally sell the shares.

Mr Staehli said the question was not whether Gay suffered capital gain or loss from the sale, but the amount he got from the sale more than someone without the information he possessed would have received.

‘‘He had an advantage over all those persons who didn’t have the information,’’ Mr Staehli said.

‘‘The value of that information is the cost we seek to recover.’’

Justice Estcourt said he would determine on Tuesday whether or not he accepted Mr Clelland’s argument that Gay should not have to pay.