Why Nicola Gobbo threatened Chief Commissioner Simon Overland she’d pull out of giving evidence
Nicola Gobbo threatened Chief Commissioner Simon Overland she would pull out of giving evidence in a major police corruption case, the Lawyer X Royal Commission has heard. Here’s why.
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Nicola Gobbo threatened Chief Commissioner Simon Overland she would pull out of giving evidence in a major police corruption case unless he gave her “like for like’’ compensation for ruining her career.
A series of Gobbo’s letters to Overland, unearthed by the Lawyer X royal commission, exposes the doublecrossing barrister’s tactic of using her secret history as a prolific, if not unprecedented, police informer and star witness to bully the force for money.
Neither wanted her use as “Human Source 3838’’ exposed.
Senior police had already identified the inevitability of a royal commission if it became public they had recruited a defence barrister to snitch on clients.
It was also known Gobbo’s life would be imperilled.
The letter, dated September 7, 2009, was sent to Chief Commissioner Overland less than a year after he decided to turn Gobbo — his “glittering prize’’ informer — into a witness against ex-drug squad detective Paul Dale.
Despite warnings, it was Overland’s decision to switch Gobbo from informer to witness, which quickly turned toxic.
After Gobbo wore a wire in late 2008 to sting Dale, investigators convinced her to make a police statement against him so the recording could be used in court.
It directly led to Dale being charged with murdering an informer he once managed — Terence Hodson — who had also been one of Gobbo’s clients.
But as it dawns on Gobbo her life is about to dramatically change, she flags she will not testify, or go into witness protection, if her demands are not met.
And she reminds Overland that without her, the covert recording of Dale will be inadmissable, and the murder case against him will be sunk.
It should have come as no surprise.
In mid-2009, Gobbo had already flagged with her police handlers she wanted $30m to enter Witness Security — and urged them to remind Overland she was owed a piece of the pie for leading police to seize $80m in assets from criminals, including the Mokbels’ illicit wealth.
“Happy to go (to a secret location) with my 30 million,’’ Gobbo told handlers.
”Tell Simon (Overland) to tell those idiots to be flexible, VicPol has cost me millions and my health,’’ file notes say.
But the letter she pens to Overland states she is “disappointed and bewildered at the attitude taken by Victoria Police’’ over entering witness protection, deeming the terms ‘‘incorrect, ill-conceived and offensive.’’
Gobbo is also acutely aware the force is desperately trying to keep her informer role a secret from Dale’s lawyers, who have subpoenaed her police history.
She even flags to Overland that any “public interest immunity’’ claim — which is a requirement to have a court officially hide her identity — will inadvertently expose her years of informing.
“ … I do not want my life further endangered by some hopeless claim for PII which will just brand me an informer thereby adding to the possible list of people who would have or do have an interest in harming me,’’ she writes.
In telling Overland to avoid public interest immunity claims to protect her years as an informer is significant.
This obligation to disclose was rejected throughout her informing career.
Gobbo’s complex dealings with Overland also includes;
— DEMANDS for an unprecedented degree of flexibility from Witsec,
— NO budgetary constraints in terms of compensation,
— A “SHOWBAG’’ arrangement involving multiple identities (kept in a
bag at the airport) so Gobbo could flit in and out of Melbourne.
Gobbo described the concept as “absurd’’.
In desperation to save their case, police served Gobbo with a subpoena and she responded by litigating them in court, stating she was too sick to testify.
Ultimately it did not matter.
The case against Dale collapsed after Carl Williams, was murdered in prison on April 19, 2010.
Regardless, Gobbo sued the state for $20m and was awarded $2.88m. At the time a confidential police operation, dubbed “Mogals’’, investigated Gobbo over suspicions she was leaking sensitive information to Dale and the media, exposing Williams co-operation with
police and risking her own cover being blown.
Investigators also wanted to question Gobbo as a suspect over her involvement in Hodson’s murder.
Gobbo was suspected of placing Hodson, her client, in danger on behalf of Dale, whom she was having sex with at the time.
Hodson was set to give evidence against Dale at the time of his murder in relation to ripping off a Mokbel drug safe house.
Mokbel was also Gobbo’s client.
Hodson and his wife, Christine, were executed in their Kew East home in 2004.
It remains unsolved.
Dale has always denied any involvement in any crime.
LAWYER X: INSIDE AUSTRALIA’S BIGGEST GANGLAND SCANDAL
* Explosive new revelations and exclusive extracts from gripping new book Lawyer X, by Anthony Dowsley and Patrick Carlyon, only in the Herald Sun and heraldsun.com.au this weekend
* Lawyer X, the story of how one woman played off police and criminals, is published by HarperCollins Australia on September 7. Pre-order your copy now at Booktopia
* Live online Q&A with Dowsley and Carlyon, hosted by Sky News’ Peter Stefanovic, on their battle to expose the truth. Send questions to ask.lawyerx@news.com.au and watch at facebook.com/heraldsun or facebook.com/TrueCrimeAustralia at 6.30pm AEST, September 9
* Watch Peter Stefanovic’s compelling two-part documentary Lawyer X: The Untold Story on Sky News at 8pm AEST, September 12 and 19
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