Lawyer X told me to flee cops:, says Tony Mokbel

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has revealed that Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, told him to flee because he was set to be charged with three murders, leading him to ­abscond to Greece.

Tony Mokbel in court. Picture: Nine News

Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel has revealed that Lawyer X, Nicola Gobbo, told him to flee because he was set to be charged with three murders, leading him to ­abscond to Greece.

The convicted drug trafficker, who wants to be set free from prison over the Lawyer X saga, told the Supreme Court he thought Gobbo – who was informing on him to police – was “the staunchest person on earth” and he “fully trusted her”.

During a hearing on Tuesday before his future appeal, Mokbel spoke out for the first time about the legal drama and a crucial 2006 conversation he allegedly had with Gobbo before he fled Australia and became the nat­ion’s most wanted man.

“She told me that I’m gonna be charged with three murders and I should seriously think about absconding,” he said of their discussion while he was on trial for importing cocaine.

At that time, Gobbo was a newly registered police informer.

Mokbel said Gobbo claimed to have a source from the anti-gangland Purana taskforce who said her client was about to be charged with the three murders

She said a man had pleaded guilty to the 2003 murder of kickboxer Michael Marshall, and was going to be a witness against Mokbel. “If you get found guilty, you’re going to get life with life,” Mokbel said Gobbo told him.

Mokbel fled in March 2006 before the drug trial ended and later jumped on a boat to Greece, where he was arrested in June 2007 after a global manhunt.

He said Gobbo helped in his extradition case, and upon his return to Australia, the late Carl Williams organised him a “secret phone” hidden in a boxing bag in 2009 so he could speak to Gobbo directly from Barwon Prison.

Baby-faced killer Williams said cops were listening in on their legal calls on the prison phone, where Mokbel had 76 calls with Gobbo over four years.

Around February 2009, he said there were rumours about Gobbo “being a dog” but he didn’t believe them. “No definitely not, I trusted her so much,” he said.

“When you spend a bit of time with her, you think she’s the staunchest person, 10 times more staunch than any criminal out there when it comes to Victoria Police.”

He said Gobbo was “always against them” and “you’d never pick her to be on the other side of the fence”.

“But she was,” his barrister Julie Condon KC replied, “a human source.”

“Exactly … still shocked, to be quite honest,” Mokbel said.

His evidence reveals that his extradition from Greece to Australia will likely be the centrepiece of his appeal strategy in fighting to have his drug conviction overturned.

He pleaded guilty to a series of drug offences in April 2011, claiming he felt “backed in a corner” and got 30 years’ jail.

Asked if he would have pleaded up “knowing what you know now”, he said “No hope in hell … I would have fought it all the way.”

Mokbel will be cross-examined by lawyers for the DPP on Wednesday in the hearing before judge Elizabeth Fullerton.

The 12-week hearing will determine answers to 25 crucial questions, which will be sent up to the Court of Appeal for Mokbel’s future appeal fight.

Herald Sun