Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo’s informer status emerged in 2011 trial

“Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo’s informer status emerged in a 2011 case against a drug dealer, with the court told there were suggestions Gobbo had been “acting as an agent for police”.

“Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo was labelled a police informer eight years ago in a case against a drug dealer run by Victoria’s then top prosecutor John Champion, SC.

Then the acting Director of Public Prosecutions, he later became the DPP and is now a Supreme Court judge.

The 2011 County Court trial of Zlate Cvetanovski on drugs charges heard suggestions that Gobbo had been “acting as an agent for police” while she had been representing members of Tony Mokbel’s drug cartel.

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Mr Champion told the court he’d inquire of anti-gangland taskforce detectives whether Gobbo had “conspired to concoct statements — false statements — with the concurrence of members of the Purana taskforce”.

Tony Mokbel (left) with Nicola Gobbo outside court.

Defence counsel Michael Pena-Rees had told the court that questions would be put to the main prosecution witness, a drug cook, that Gobbo “was working with the police in relation to certain matters involving the Mokbels”.

He said: “The allegation is this: that the concoction of ­information that was to be supplied to police was for both their advantages.”

Asked if he had evidence Gobbo had been acting as a police agent, he replied: “Yes.”

Mr Champion told the court that he would need to discuss “evidence that’s transpired in this court with some police officers”, particularly concerning Gobbo “and her alleged involvement, and I anticipate that it may be being put that there’s, in ­effect, a conspiracy”.

The presiding judge, Jim Montgomery, remarked that Gobbo’s role representing the Mokbel cartel was “redefining conflict of interest”.

“Apart from the fact that she’s a barrister and she seems to be, on the evidence of this trial, one of dubious ethical standards in relation to conflict of interest, she seems to be acting for everyone,” he said.

“Someone keeps telling me she’s back in practice. I can’t understand how.”

In 2015, Mr Champion led an internal Office of Public Prosecutions inquiry that found prosecutors had “had no knowledge of the identity of Ms Gobbo or the use of Ms Gobbo as a human source by Victoria Police”, clearing the OPP of any wrongdoing.

As DPP, he later wrote 20 letters to criminals — including Cvetanovski, who is now pursuing an appeal — advising their convictions might have been tainted by Gobbo’s activities as a police informer.

Late last year, after the failure of a two-year fight by Victoria Police to stop those letters being sent, the state government set up a royal commission to inquire into the Lawyer X affair.

Mr Champion, who refused to comment on the 2011 case last week, could be called before the inquiry.

Throughout Cvetanovski’s 2011 trial, Gobbo was accused of having had improper ­relationships with clients, including by agreeing to pay off a drug debt for the “drug cook” who was the Crown’s star witness.

It was said the arrangement with the cook, who was also a “covert operative” for police and cannot be named for legal reasons, was made with the knowledge of police.

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