Did Johnny Depp lie to Australia over dog smuggling fiasco?

New documents allege Johnny Depp was "fully aware" he was illegally bringing his dogs into Australia. Photo / AP

Prepare yourselves, residents of Australia: Johnny Depp may have lied to you all.

Fresh from his latest controversy, in which he was forced to issue and apology for joking about assassinating US President Donald Trump, new allegations have emerged about an old one.

It's been more than two years since Depp and his ex-wife Amber Heard became the most infamous quarantine criminals in Australian history, when they smuggled Heard's two terriers, Pistol and Boo, into the country without clearing border protection, when they arrived by private jet.

You may remember the somewhat farcical scenes in which then Agriculture Minister, now Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, threatened to have the dogs killed after their fugitive status was accidentally revealed by a Gold Coast dog groomer.

Mr Joyce gave Pistol and Boo 72 hours to "bugger off back to California" before he would have them put to sleep.

No-one was above Australian quarantine law, he opined at the time. Not even, he pointed out, a person voted sexiest man alive. Twice.

But, Depp protested, it was all a misunderstanding. He thought his people had taken care of the paperwork.

His then-wife, Heard, told a Gold Coast court as much a year later, when she appeared charged with falsifying arrival documents.

Depp came along, sitting beside her in Southport Magistrates Court, occasionally nodding off, as the Commonwealth outlined the case against her.

Heard escaped with just a fine, before she and her celebrity husband escaped the country.

Though neither of them escaped punishment completely, if you remember perhaps the worst border protection video in the history of the world.

But now, it has emerged, that Depp may have lied to us all.

The actor is embroiled in a bitter court battle with his former business managers, The Management Group, who have filed legal documents that state, he was "fully aware that he was illegally bringing his dogs to Australia" when he was in the country filming the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film in May 2015.

Maybe Barnaby was right. The two-time sexiest man alive did think he was above the law.

According to the documents, obtained by People, TMG claim, "Depp falsely claimed to authorities and in public press interviews that the incident was a big misunderstanding because he supposedly believed his staff had obtained the necessary paperwork".

After the dog groomer's Facebook post uncovered the two tiny quarantine fugitives, TMG claims he, "pressured one of his long-term employees to 'take the fall'."

Depp himself was never charged. Instead it was his now ex-wife who took the fall.

Johnny Depp's ex-wife Amber Heard - who obtained a temporary restraining order against Depp after an alleged assault - took the fall for the dog smuggling. Photo / Getty

In the wake of the hearing, Depp mocked Mr Joyce, who enjoyed brief notoriety in the US during the incident, with Americans left scratching their heads about why a politician would want to kill two tiny dogs.

Referring to him as Barnaby Jones on Jimmy Kimmel Live in May 2016, Depp told the late-night television audience Mr Joyce, "looks somehow inbred with a tomato."