Lawyer X inquiry: Simon Overland knew it was almost inevitable Nicola Gobbo would be discovered

Nicola Gobbo’s status as an informer was always likely to be uncovered, former police commissioner tells inquiry.

Former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland leaves the Royal Commission on Wednesday. Picture: David Crosling/AAP

Former Victoria Police commissioner Simon Overland believed it was “almost inevitable” that barrister Nicola Gobbo’s role as a police informer would be discovered, a royal commission has heard.

Mr Overland told the “Lawyer X” royal commission on Thursday that he didn’t believe that her handlers in 2006 were worried about an inquiry into Ms Gobbo’s work as a registered police informer.

“I understood at the time their anxieties about protecting the identity of a source,” Mr Overland said. “It was a general anxiety that any police officer would share, around protecting the identity of a source.

“Look, I always thought, as I said before, I always thought from relatively early on in this, that it was highly likely that Ms Gobbo’s role was going to be discovered at some point in time.

“I thought it was almost inevitable. So I didn’t share that concern at any point.”

He made the comments after being asked about notes from a 2006 meeting of handlers at the Source Development Unit that suggest Mr Overland was to be approached in a bid to stop Ms Gobbo from being asked certain questions by the Office of Police Integrity.

Mr Overland has previously told the inquiry he did not know Ms Gobbo was providing information about her clients, and that he was unaware she represented drug kingpin Tony Mokbel.

On Thursday, Mr Overland said he believed he was told that when Mr Mokbel fled the country for Greece, Ms Gobbo was helping run his Australian drug operations while helping police to locate him.

“My recollection at that point is that Ms Gobbo had been in reasonably regular contact with Mr Mokbel, but it didn’t look like a legal-professional relationship,” he said.

“It looked like someone who was facilitating his continued operation of his drug network back in Australia.

“I think that was what I was being told. I understood that she was assisting the investigators in locating and apprehending him overseas. I don’t know the detail, but my understanding was that she was useful in providing information around the location and capture of Tony Mokbel in Greece.”

He also said he was aware that she was “prolific” in providing information.

“I understood that she was prolific at various points, but I didn’t know the volume was at that level during that period of time,” Mr Overland said. “I wasn’t privy to the detailed account of exactly what information she was providing on the day-to-day interactions she was having with the SDU.”

On Tuesday, Mr Overland said he was unsure if using a criminal barrister as an informant was illegal but agreed “the ethics were f****d”.

But under questioning Mr Overland, who between 2003 and 2006 was assistant commissioner of crime and led the anti-gangland Purana taskforce, conceded police could have ­“perverted the course of justice”.