Nicola Gobbo charged Tony Mokbel a fortune while trying to get him locked up
The whopping legal bill Nicola Gobbo handed to Tony Mokbel has been revealed, with the loose-lipped Lawyer X charging him $84,000 while trying to get him locked up.
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Loose-lipped barrister Nicola Gobbo charged Tony Mokbel a fortune in legal fees while trying to get him locked up.
Gobbo billed Mokbel $84,000 between December 2005 and March 2006, the Lawyer X royal commission heard yesterday.
Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke QC, also asserted that officers seeking to smash the Mokbel drug cartel planned to use her against her own clients from the outset.
Among those who were aware of a sting on a drug cook involving Gobbo was Simon Overland, then the assistant commissioner of crime, the hearing was also told.
Mr Winneke said her information was first used against Mokbel to put the cook in a position where he faced a long stint behind bars unless he “rolled’’ on the cartel.
Mokbel infamously fled a cocaine importation trial in March 2006, triggering a 15-month global manhunt.
But after a bewigged Mokbel was arrested in Greece, he even called Gobbo from his Athens cell, unaware she was working as a registered police informer, number 3838.
Gobbo charged him $1800 for her services while he battled extradition.
The Herald Sun has reported since the scandal broke that by receiving money from clients she informed on, Gobbo could face criminal investigation for obtaining a financial gain by deception.
Yesterday, the commission heard the third day of evidence from “Sandy White’’, a pseudonym used for the officer who spearheaded the secretive source development unit, which recruited Gobbo as an informer.
During Mr White’s initial meeting with Gobbo in September 2005, he told Gobbo: “Tell us everything you know about Tony Mokbel.’’
During a series of meetings a taskforce, codenamed Posse, was established aimed at dismantling Mokbel’s cartel.
“During this meeting it was suggested that Gobbo could orchestrate a mechanism for him (the drug cook) to plead (guilty) and give evidence against Mokbel and other associates,’’ Mr Winneke said.
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Part of the plan was for Gobbo to take the “The Cook’’ to a hotel where a detective he respected would “accidentally’’ bump into him.
But the plan never came off after a series of delays.
The Cook, however, became a significant witness for police after his arrest.
Victoria Police regarded the “conflicts’’ that Gobbo faced in informing on clients as her ethical problem.
Mr White said Gobbo was told privileged information was off the table.