Lawyer X: Simon Overland blasts Nine ‘haggling over $4k for cops’
In his first interview since leaving the force in 2011, the former top cop has launched an extraordinary attack on the makers of the Lawyer X television drama.
Simon Overland has accused Nine of “haggling” over a $4000 charity payment to the families of four dead police officers during a legal dispute over his portrayal in the network’s drama Informer 3838.
Victoria’s former top cop fired off a legal complaint to the network last week, describing his depiction in its series on “Lawyer X” Nicola Gobbo — watched by close to a million viewers — as a slur on his reputation and character.
In a remarkably quick surrender, just 10 days after receiving the complaint, Nine and Screentime signed a deed of settlement on Thursday.
In his first interview since leaving Victoria Police in controversial circumstances in 2011, Mr Overland told The Weekend Australian the entertainment giants had rejected his request for a $10,000 payment to the fund established for the families of the four officers killed by a truck on the Eastern Freeway last month.
“They’ve done this for their commercial reasons and I thought there should be some sort of financial compensation as well,” he said. “I initially asked them to make a payment of $10,000 to Victoria Police Legacy in support of the families of the four police officers who tragically were killed the other day.
“Look, they’ve offered $6000, so they are haggling over four grand, for four dead police officers. But they’re going to make a payment of $6000. They’re making money out of this, and they’re making money out of Victoria Police, in a sense, so I think that is an appropriate charity for that payment to go to.”
In the two-part drama based on the life of Melbourne’s gang-war lawyer, Mr Overland’s character, played by Ian Bliss, is shown having multiple meetings and telephone conversations with the secret police informer.
But the five interactions between the Overland and Gobbo characters were a sensationalist invention and ignored evidence in the Lawyer X royal commission that the former chief commissioner and the double-dealing barrister never met or spoke.
Mr Overland said the network had broadcast a program “advertised as factual” but packed with “simply made up” plot lines.
“The main thing is it’s just not right, it is not factual and Nine and Screentime have now recognised that, which I think is important,” he told The Weekend Australian.
To settle the legal dispute and head off a potentially expensive defamation case, Nine and Screentime agreed to insert a billboard at the conclusion of the show that makes it clear to viewers that scenes showing the Overland and Gobbo characters were fictional.
The billboard will also clearly state Mr Overland’s position that he was unaware Ms Gobbo was informing on her clients, including Tony Mokbel and Rob Karam.
Nine declined to comment on Friday. But it’s believed the network offered Mr Overland two settlements: A $10,000 donation and no billboard correcting the record, or a $6000 donation and a billboard.
Sources close to Mr Overland criticised Nine’s offer as unreasonable, given the point of the action was to correct the record.
Screentime failed to respond to requests for comment.
Aside from his testimony to the royal commission, Mr Overland has maintained a near decade-long public silence.
But his portrayal in Informer 3838 so angered the former top cop he has launched an extraordinary attack on Nine and Screentime. “I am concerned about it, I think it does go to my reputation because it’s portraying me in a light that is not factual and saying and doing things I would never say or do,” he said.
“So I think those things reflect poorly on the character and by inference reflect poorly on me if people are of the understanding that the program is factual, which it clearly isn’t.
“It would have been better had they not done it in the first place, I think. That would have been a more respectful thing to do, wouldn’t it?
“I didn’t ask for an apology, I am really beyond all of that. I just really wanted it to be on the record that those scenes are an invention. It is clearly on the record that I have never met or spoken to Ms Gobbo.
“I was very concerned that they (Nine and Screentime) were putting this story forward as a factual account and then included in it quite a number of scenes with me meeting with, speaking with, Ms Gobbo, when it is quite clear, she says on evidence in the royal commission, and I say on evidence in the royal commission, that neither of us have ever met or spoken.”
Despite his anger and legal victory, Mr Overland says he hasn’t watched Informer 3838.
“I can’t bring myself to watch any of this stuff,” he said, saying his lawyers had briefed him on the details.
“I was really very concerned when they told me both about the fact that I was portrayed as having met with Ms Gobbo on a number of occasions ... these are not things I have done or would ever do, and some of the sentiments that were being expressed by the character are just things I would never say, so it is just a total misrepresentation.”
Mr Overland said he was particularly concerned about the scenes in which his character appeared to be pushing Lawyer X to betray her clients.
“It is not as if they (Nine and Screentime) didn’t know, couldn’t have known or shouldn’t have known,” he said.
“That is not something I would say, because I was specifically asked about it in the royal commission. I was in the witness box for eight days.
“I was questioned very thoroughly and widely about all matters relating to Ms Gobbo, you know.
“It wouldn’t have been hard for them to work out that that is simply not a view that I hold, and it was a view that I specifically rejected when it was put to me in the royal commission.”
Mr Overland said he was “bemused” by the fact he was one of only three real police officers — the others being convicted drug thief Dave Miechel and detective Paul Dale — depicted in Informer 3838.
Mr Overland — who as deputy commissioner of Victoria Police led the police response to the gang war — has been accused of being the architect of recruiting Ms Gobbo to spy on her clients.
The Lawyer X scandal has triggered a royal commission and could see multiple gang war killers and drug dealers walk free.
The 58-year-old would not be drawn on whether he felt he got a fair hearing at the commission.
Despite having one of the highest profiles in the state while running Victoria Police, Mr Overland has avoided the spotlight for nine years.
But it becomes clear during the interview with The Weekend Australian he feels that he is a victim of the Lawyer X saga.
“There has been a lot said prior to the royal commission about my role in all of this and almost all of it has been factually wrong and all of it has been out of context and lacking balance and fairness,” he said.
“My fear is that people have fixed on that account that has been provided really since 2014 and haven’t paid attention to the evidence that has actually come out in the royal commission.
“Ultimately there will be a report and hopefully that will further clarify the situation, but it is very concerning that (Nine and Screentime) decided to represent me in these ways.
“People have suggested to me that the character is not very like me at all. It’s not how I talk, it’s not what I do.”
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