Pass the pita: Where does the Mokbel fiasco go from here?

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld in Naked City, an exclusive newsletter for subscribers sent every Thursday. You’re reading an excerpt – sign up to get the whole newsletter in your inbox.

The reason statues of Lady Justice are often presented blindfolded and carrying scales is to show the system treats everyone equally, and verdicts are delivered only after all the evidence is weighed.

There can be no greater example than that of drug trafficker Tony Mokbel, who, having been recaptured in 2007 in Greece, has been in custody ever since.

Rug lord: Tony Mokbel has been in custody since he was arrested in Athens in 2007 wearing a terrible wig (left).Credit: Reuters

No one, including Mokbel, doubts he ran one of Australia’s biggest drug syndicates, but there is a growing body of serious legal minds that believe the evidence compiled against him, and his convictions, should be thrown out. His notoriety should not be a consideration.

In 2012, Mokbel was sentenced to 30 years with a minimum 22 (reduced on appeal to 26 with a minimum of 20) after he pleaded guilty to drug trafficking. The judge said he would have sentenced him to life if he had gone to trial to be found guilty by a jury.

A few years earlier, in 2006, Mokbel jumped bail, fled overseas and continued to control his syndicate from Greece. He left to escape justice, not because he had a hankering for a souvlaki with extra garlic sauce. He was on the lam, not on the lamb.

He pleaded guilty because he faced overwhelming evidence. We now know that some of that evidence (from three key informers) was tainted, as lawyer-turned police agent Nicola Gobbo worked to have them rat on Mokbel.

The informers were not lollipop ladies caught drinking sherry after hours – they were key members of the Mokbel syndicate who turned informers to reduce their own jail terms. Gobbo didn’t make them do it − self-interest did.

Once her role was exposed, we have had multiple legal reviews blasting Gobbo and the police for being far too sneaky for their own good.

Barrister Nicola Gobbo with Mokbel outside court in 2004.Credit: Nine

The latest is by Justice Elizabeth Fullerton – who delivered her scathing report that greenlights Mokbel going to the Court of Appeal to attempt to have his conviction (even though he stood in the same Supreme Court to say he was guilty) quashed.

It is the story of the week.

Fullerton is an experienced NSW judge who agreed to hear the case to avoid Victoria’s conflict-of-interest concerns. The report was damning. “I was satisfied that the elements of a joint criminal enterprise to attempt to pervert the course of justice were made out and that four members of Victoria Police participated with Ms Gobbo in that agreement to achieve that unlawful objective,” she said.

She was also critical of then-director of public prosecutions John Champion, who, she says, should have blown the whistle on the scam, once he became aware of it, in 2012. Champion is now a respected Supreme Court judge.

Fullerton found, “I was unable to comfortably reach a conclusion as to why the [then] director breached his duty of disclosure, other than it being a result of an error of judgment.”

So the cops committed a criminal conspiracy, while the DPP made a mistake. This is entirely consistent with every inquiry into this matter. The police were wicked, while lawyers were absolved of blame.

In the long-running royal commission into police informants, the police were called to account, with many grilled for weeks in the witness box, while some lawyers were allowed to provide statements, avoiding pesky cross-examination.

Gobbo said in evidence she first became an informer as a young lawyer to expose a legal firm for laundering money. The name of the firm was suppressed. She said on another occasion she wanted to prove another lawyer was working illegally for a crime syndicate. That name was suppressed.

When a respected detective produced an affidavit saying a lawyer was laundering money for Mokbel at Queensland’s Jupiter Casino, the name was suppressed. The startling claim bounced like a dead cat, and there have been no police or legal practice investigations into the allegation.

When Gobbo said she had an improper (not illegal) affair with a policeman (a claim he denied in evidence), his name was made public. Even Gobbo herself, a smart and independent legal practitioner, says she was manipulated by the cops.

The lack of curiosity over the roles of fellow defence lawyers, prosecutors and judges in the Gobbo matter is indeed curious, and it could be argued the blindfold of Lady Justice may have slipped a little.

Mokbel was persuaded to plead guilty, not by Gobbo but by independent senior barrister Peter Faris, QC, because the phone tap evidence (not the testimony of the three informers) was unequivocal.

Jailed drug boss Tony Mokbel leaves the County Court in a prison van in February 2024.Credit: Jason South

The Court of Appeal may find the weight of evidence would mean a conviction was inevitable, the evidence was tainted and there should be a retrial, or that Mokbel can walk. They could even conclude that the evidence was so putrid he should not have been extradited from Athens in the first place.

But if a NSW judge had to hear the preliminary case, due to potential conflicts of interest, can the Victorian Court of Appeal now hear Mokbel’s argument when Justice Champion has been drawn into the controversy?

And if the Mokbel conviction is set aside, can he ask for the 54 properties, two farms, 30 luxury cars, the yacht, Edwena, that he used to sail from Australia, a Caulfield horse stable, country hotel, Brunswick market, Sydney Road car park, Boronia pizza parlour, four jet skis, a champion racehorse and the wig he used in his Athens disguise, all valued at $55 million (excluding interest), to be returned?

Mokbel’s Ferrari was seized by police.Credit:

If there were a retrial, police could reinstate multiple drug charges that were dropped when he agreed to plead guilty in 2012. After Gobbo told him in 2006, while he was standing trial on cocaine offences, that he was likely to be charged with two murders, he jumped bail. Why haven’t they both been charged over this?

Or could there be a deal? Mokbel pleads guilty, to reduced charges, agrees not to sue and is released with time served. It would seem to be a sensible compromise to finally end a matter that has become a legal disaster. But there has been nothing sensible in this fiasco, so why start now?

Pass the garlic sauce. And the pita bread.

John Silvester lifts the lid on Australia’s criminal underworld. Subscribers can sign up to receive his Naked City newsletter every Thursday.