Lawyer X: Police inspector had concerns about how Nicola Gobbo was ‘managed’

An investigator involved in the first conviction to be discharged over the use of Nicola Gobbo appears at royal commission.

Melbourne lawyer and police informant Nicola Gobbo. Picture: ABC NEWS

An investigator involved in the first conviction to be discharged over the use of barrister-turned informer Nicola Gobbo has told the “Lawyer X” royal commission that he has concerns about “how things were managed” with her.

But Victoria Police Inspector Boris Buick also told the royal commission that he was not worried about it at the time and said he had no concerns about the conduct of he and his colleagues.

Inspector Buick said he handled the case against Faruk Orman on behalf of police. His concerns about the use of Ms Gobbo became apparent when he was released from jail in July.

Orman was jailed for the 2002 murder of underworld figure Victor Peirce, but had his conviction quashed this year after it emerged that Ms Gobbo, his lawyer­, was a police informer who had urged witnesses to give evidenc­e against him.

“Looking back now with the benefit of having a far broader understanding, I certainly have some concerns about how things were managed in relation to Nicola Gobbo,” Inspector Buick said.

"I wasn’t privy to decisions being made by the steering committees. I wasn’t privy to how Nicola Gobbo was managed as a human source. I wasn’t privy to the passage to the information from handlers to investigators. I’ve now read enough (and) seen enough to be more cognisant of that.”

He said Mr Orman’s conviction was quashed because “Nicola Gobbo had a conflict of interest and failed to declare, act on and make appropriate decisions based on that conflict”.

Inspector Buick said the concerns about her management was “why we’re here, and that’s why we’ve had matters discharged at court”.

“That’s why we’ve had the High Court be quite disparaging about the conduct of the organisation,” he added.

The royal commission into the use of police informers also heard that there was intelligence in 2003 that there was a threat against her safety by hitman Andrew Veniamin – who was killed the following year – after she agreed to represent underworld figure Lewis Moran in court.

The royal commission was set up following a 2018 High Court judgment that found Victoria Police engaged in “reprehensible” conduct by “knowingly encouraging” Ms Gobbo to provide information against the interests of her clients.