Lawyer X Nicola Gobbo selling Melbourne apartment
Barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo is selling her bayside apartment in Melbourne while in hiding, as a verdict looms in her high-profile compensation suit against the Victorian government.
On Saturday, prospective buyers flocked to the first open house at the apartment, milling out onto its balconies to take in sweeping city and bay views – unaware the vendor was Melbourne’s biggest supergrass.
Gobbo’s life as a high-profile gangland barrister came crashing down in late 2018 when it was revealed she had also been secretly spying on her clients for police as “Informer 3838” or “Lawyer X” at the height of the underworld war. The scandal has rocked Victoria Police and caused a string of gangland figures to appeal their convictions, including most recently drug kingpin Tony Mokbel, now out on bail.
Nicola Gobbo (left) with her client Tony Mokbel (centre) outside court in 2004. Credit: Nine News
Gobbo’s apartment was listed for sale this week – with a pricetag well in excess of $1 million – less than a month after she settled a lawsuit brought against her by one of her exonerated clients, gangland figure Faruk Orman. Orman had been seeking millions of dollars from his former lawyer over her secret role in his 2008 prosecution for murder, for which Orman spent 12 years in jail before being set free on appeal.
The settlement deal on the eve of the trial came as a relief to some underworld figures, who might have been forced to give evidence.
Gobbo still owns a clutch of properties across Melbourne’s south-east, though she does not live at any of them since going into hiding. Her name disappeared soon after from the land titles registry by a special police order, an unprecedented move that made her assets difficult to find in the years since, including for Orman’s legal team.
Her name was recently reinstated, clearing the way for the sale of her properties, but Gobbo is now living under a new identity.
She is also suing the state herself for compensation, arguing police acted negligently when they “groomed” her to become a source, putting her health and safety at risk. Her legal team expects a judgment on the case to be handed down in the coming weeks, but any potential payout for Gobbo has been capped at $1 million by special Victorian government legislation.
Giving evidence to the civil trial from a secret location late last year, Gobbo spoke of a high-stakes life on the run across multiple continents, and the logistical nightmare of being unable to sign documents or access investments under her birth name since police bundled her out of the country and gave her a new identity.
She had been unable to sell the properties in Melbourne, she said, and faced difficulties renting them out in later years after established tenants left because she needed a court order to handle assets under her real name.
“We asked that Victoria Police conduct an independent valuation of assets, loans, debts, and the like and simply deal with the property so that we would be able to be safe and free and clear and able to move on with our lives,” she told the court. But it never happened.
One of her lawyers only discovered her name had disappeared from the title registry while investigating how to liquidate her assets. “It couldn’t be found,” Gobbo said.
Meanwhile, she told the court of moving safe houses in the middle of the night, and an isolating stay at a “mice-infested” farm overseas she “couldn’t leave”, with a pet goat for company.
Gobbo bought the Melbourne apartment now up for sale more than 20 years ago for $535,000, but it has sat empty for some time. While it’s expected there may be a few more administrative hoops for Gobbo to jump through before the money clears, the property is slated to go to auction at the end of the month. About a dozen people attended the open on Saturday, along with The Age.
“Those stairs up here are deadly,” one man said, laughing.
In 2010, Gobbo was paid $2.88 million to settle another lawsuit against the state after her identity as a key witness in a case was inadvertently revealed in court proceedings.
At the time, Gobbo’s 15-year history as an informer – for which one chief commissioner called her a “glittering prize” in the fight against organised crime – was still one of Victoria Police’s most tightly guarded secrets.
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