Lawyer X: Tony Mokbel has prison sentence slashed after Nicola Gobbo scandal
Underworld figure Tony Mokbel could be free within 10 years after he had a 30-year prison sentence and non-parole period slashed following the Lawyer X scandal.
Police & Courts
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Drug lord Tony Mokbel could be released from prison in less than a decade after an earlier conviction was quashed due to the Lawyer X scandal.
The drug kingpin, 57, on Tuesday had his 30-year jail term slashed by four years after a 2006 cocaine importation conviction was quashed because his barrister Nicola Gobbo – known as Lawyer X – provided information to police while representing him.
Mokbel, who is serving time on other drug charges, also had his non-parole period cut from 22 years to 20 years, making him eligible for supervised release in 2031 with time served.
Wearing a black suit, the drug kingpin appeared remotely via video link from Barwon Prison just days after he was released from hospital following a suspected blood clot.
In handing down their decision, Victorian Court of Appeal Justices Karin Emerton, David Beach and Stephen McLeish found Mokbel had served more than five years of his quashed conviction which was not served alongside other sentences.
The appeal justices said consideration had also been given to a vicious prison stabbing that nearly claimed Mokbel’s life, his ongoing injuries and restrictions placed on inmates during the pandemic.
His lawyer Julie Condon KC last month told the court Mokbel was subject to a “strict” management regimen that saw him socially isolated from other inmates following the attack.
He spent weeks in a coma after he was stabbed with a “shiv” by fellow inmates Teira Bennett and Eldea Teuira in Barwon Prison’s exercise yard in February 2019.
A prison psychiatrist assessed Mokbel, finding he had made a “remarkable but incomplete recovery” following the attack, with ongoing cognitive difficulties with memory, planning and organisation.
He recommended Mokbel be removed from social isolation to mitigate his risk of developing psychosis and suicidal tendencies.
Mokbel was jailed for 30 years in 2012 after pleading guilty to three counts of drug trafficking.
He had by that time already spent five years behind bars following his 2006 conviction for importing a traffickable quantity of cocaine.
Mokbel’s legal team has been working through all his convictions since he first began his Lawyer X appeal six years ago.
The quashing of the 2006 conviction over a 3kg cocaine importation was the simplest because in that trial, from which Mokbel fled, barrister turned informer Nicola Gobbo was at the bar table representing him.
Mokbel, a gambling addict, remained the head of his drug empire known as “The Company” while he was on the run for 15 months.
As a fugitive he remained in contact with his associates in Australia until his capture in June, 2007.
Mokbel was extradited from Greece in 2008 facing numerous drug trafficking charges and a pair of murder raps.
The murder raps didn’t stick, but he pleaded guilty to massive drug trafficking charges in 2011, but then unsuccessfully tried to change his mind.
The drug investigations were a mix of Victorian and federal police operations and were given names such as Matchless, Quills, Orbital and Magnum.
Before he pleaded guilty he was facing seven drug trials.
But as part of his plea deal, four of the drug investigations were dropped.
Mokbel was sentenced in 2012 as Victoria Police began a private internal examination of the Lawyer X saga.
Mokbel’s ongoing appeal is an attempt to scratch as many of his convictions as possible.
But to do so he must unravel the role of Gobbo.
For years, Victoria Police has been fighting Mokbel’s demands to hand over documents.
The force has admitted the use of Gobbo as a registered informer was flawed from the outset.
Gobbo was used to gain intelligence on the criminal underworld, particularly relating to Mokbel, as well as to “roll” criminals in his drug empire.
She also gave Mokbel legal advice relating to fighting extradition when he was captured in Athens in 2007.
Mokbel argues his extradition was therefore unlawful.
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