The IBA claim Stratford attended the office on April 28 and removed the trophy - along with several other pieces of memorabilia - from a shared boardroom into the Hawks NBL office.

The locks to the Hawks office were subsequently changed without the IBA being being notified, a breach of the NBL club's office license agreement with the Association.

IBA president Graham Lancaster says the items, including the trophy, were retrieved from the Hawks now-vacated offices on Tuesday ahead of a meeting with Stratford and administrators on Wednesday.

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It's since been agreed the memorabilia will remain in the possession of the IBA until the administration process is complete, with it now under fresh lock and key.

"There was memorabilia removed from the boardroom of the Illawarra Basketball Association and placed on the NBL Hawks side of the building," Lancaster said.

"The video seems to indicate that was done by Simon Stratford on the 28th of April. We then communicated with the administrators to express our concerns at that action.

"The Hawks had a license for the space they use and the changing of the locks was a direct violation of [the] license. That happened without informing us it would occur and that's why we took the action we took to get that material back.

"We met with the administrators on Wednesday where we agreed that would remain in the board room of the IBA until the administrators have completed their processes."

The Hawks were community owned following the famous Save the Hawks campaign, before Telco millionaire James Spenceley took majority ownership of club in 2015.

Initially a minority owner, Stratford took sole ownership of the club in 2018 but Lancaster says that process never transferred ownership of the championship trophy or memorabilia at the centre of the dispute.

"Much of what we had, including the 2001 championship trophy, was memorabilia that could in no way have been acquired by the Hawks Proprietary Limited or Simon," Lancaster said.

"The Illawarra Hawks NBL club was originally started by the Illawarra Basketball Association and we have a long and proud history of starting that entity.

"At various times it's passed in and out of private ownership and community ownership and its roots are deep within this region. We're not going to let the heart be ripped out.

"Simon did say today that he wanted to ensure the memorabilia stayed in the region as well so that's how we've come to the agreement that we have."

Lancaster said the Association is confident the right outcome will be reached, but the trophy and memorabilia will remain in local hands while the administration process plays out.

"I imagine we'll get some sort of decision in a two-week period," Lancaster said.

"They're going to leave all the memorabilia there and make an inventory of it. Once that has been sent around we'll discuss who owns what.

"I'm confident that we will resolve it and confident that the memorabilia the IBA had possession and custody of will come back to us and we will continue to serve the interests of the community in retaining those items of history.

"It was surprising and it has meant some time being spent dealing with something we probably shouldn't have had to deal with."

The Mercury's attempts to reach Stratford on Wednesday were unsuccessful but he responded on Twitter claiming the trophy "never left the hands or the IBA" and that the move came "after months of stolen company assets" and that he was making sure the trophy would "never leave the steel city."

Quizzed as to whether he had reported the alleged theft to police or could detail what had been taken Stratford responded: "You are correct, can't say at this time, it will all be told."