By Erin Pearson and Chris Vedelago
Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has been locked up for 6511 days since he was picked up on the run in Greece in a bad wig, but it will be only three more before he might finally taste free air.
On Tuesday, the underworld figure made a bid for bail after being locked up overseas and in Barwon Prison for nearly 18 years for drug trafficking, a prosecution that his legal team argues has been hopelessly corrupted by the Lawyer X scandal.
The 59-year-old appeared ebullient as he walked into the Court of Appeal, flanked by no fewer than four specialist prison security guards who had plucked him out of a special armoured BearCat vehicle that transported him from a maximum-security prison cell for the hearing. Another eight or so police and protective service officers were milling around outside court.
Mokbel nodded and smiled at his legal team and family members, including sister Gawy, who was on hand for a hug and who put up an $850,000 surety to guarantee that he stays put, in the event the court grants him bail. The Court of Appeal will hand down its decision on Friday.
The prosecution told the court that Mokbel’s flight risk was not small, given the last time the mastermind of drug trafficking operation The Company was free, his sister-in-law Renate lost $1 million and spent months in jail when he fled Australia in 2006 hidden inside a 17-metre yacht.
A sketch of Tony Mokbel in court on Tuesday.Credit: Anita Lester
The court heard Mokbel wants to be bailed to live with sister Gawy at her four-bedroom, two-ensuite home in Viewbank, in Melbourne’s outer north-east.
“Look, he’s been punished for it and he’s done his time. I’m sure he wouldn’t do it [flee] to anyone else or me. That’s my strong belief,” she testified.
Other conditions proposed in court included the possibility of an ankle bracelet to track Mokbel’s movements, an 11pm-to-6am curfew and daily reporting to police.
But David Glynn, for the Office of Public Prosecutions, raised concerns about how a person could be tracked via the signal to their monitoring device if they were to remove it, or escape underground beyond the range of phone towers.
Condon is urging the judges to release Mokbel on bailCredit: Alex Coppel
Laura Windsor, operations manager at GPS company Allied Universal, told the court the company currently tracks 19 Victorians on bail and 142 people across Australia.
Windsor agreed that if a person were to go underground, their coverage would be lost, with staff called on to attempt to contact the bailed person.
Mokbel’s barrister, Julie Condon, KC, relied on nine factors in seeking bail for Mokbel, including his poor health, the strength of his appeal case and his circumstances in custody.
Condon also revealed Mokbel was in a long-term relationship and had family who lived locally, giving him strong ties to the community.
Tony Mokbel in Melbourne in 2003, and inset, when he was arrested in Greece in 2007.Credit: The Age
The court heard Mokbel would submit to GPS monitoring via an ankle bracelet and provide a surety as conditions of bail.
He was handed a 30-year prison sentence, with a non-parole of 22 years, in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.
Mokbel has applied to have his entire conviction quashed because of the Lawyer X scandal, after the discovery that his barrister, Nicola Gobbo, was also working as a double agent for police.
In November last year, a judge found that police took part in a “joint criminal enterprise” to pervert the course of justice when they used Gobbo to help bring down Mokbel.
Gobbo had helped convince a drug cook to plead guilty and turn supergrass against Mokbel.
It was the strongest indication yet that Mokbel could succeed in having his convictions overturned, spurring his application for bail as he awaits a final decision on the appeal.
Condon told the court that Gobbo’s role in her client’s case was unlike any of the other Lawyer X cases and it was “unthinkable” that Mokbel would not have fought his drugs charges had he known about her betrayal.
Tony Mokbel leaves The Court of Appeal after his hearing in Melbourne.Credit: Alex Coppel
Mokbel, wearing a striped tie and black suit, sat behind glass in the court, surrounded by four specialist security officers and behind two rows of lawyers.
After the lunch break, Mokbel got a visit and a hand-shake from a man in a jumper branded with a funeral home service well-known for burying clients from the underworld, most recently Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim.
In a last-minute twist to the ongoing and complicated legal proceedings, Mokbel’s long-time lawyer Sarah Tricarico had her practising certificate cancelled last month by the Legal Services Board after she was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Last week, Tricarico was granted a stay on her suspension to allow her to continue acting for Mokbel, under supervision, so his long-running bail and appeal hearings were not derailed.
Tricarico plans to fight the charges and have her practising certificate reinstated.
Mokbel is currently eligible for parole in June 2031.
Friends leave court.Credit: Alex Coppel
Mokbel was all smiles as he left the court on Tuesday, stopping to shake hands, and speak with, half a dozen friends and family.
Two of those men left court in an orange Lamborghini.
Not present in court was Mokbel’s de facto partner, whose identity remains a mystery but who is part of his argument that he now has strong ties to the community that would prevent him from absconding.
John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.