Lawyer X inquiry: Simon Overland says Victorian police ‘may have perverted course of justice’

In bombshell evidence to the royal commission, a former top cop agreed ‘the ethics were f..ked’.

Former Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland. Picture: AAP.

Former top cop Simon Overland has admitted Victoria Police may have perverted the course of justice by using criminal barrister Nicola Gobbo as an informant against her clients and has accepted personal responsibility for leading the investigation that used her tainted information.

Mr Overland, who has denied knowing Ms Gobbo was ratting on her underworld clientele, agreed on Tuesday that he should have known and had ­failed to ask “absolutely obvious” questions of investigators.

In bombshell evidence to the “Lawyer X” royal commission, Mr Overland said he was unsure if using a criminal barrister as an informant was illegal but agreed “the ethics were f..ked”.

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”.

Counsel assisting the commission­ Chris Winneke QC asked: “If, for example, Victoria Police … present (a) person to someone who is seeking independent legal advice … (and) that person is in fact an informer acting­ … for Victoria Police, is there a potential for that to be illega­l conduct?”

Mr Overland replied: “Potentially.”

Mr Winneke then asked: “Could it be, for example, that it might have a tendency to pervert the course of justice?”

Mr Overland said: “It could do.”

Mr Overland, who would climb the ranks to become deputy commissioner in 2006, then chief commissioner in 2009, said Ms Gobbo was involved­ in “literally everything” and using her as an informant was “problematic”.

Nicola Gobbo on the ABC last week. Picture: 7:30 Report.

Ms Gobbo, who has been ordered­ to give evidence at the royal commission next month, was a high-profile criminal defenc­e barrister who represented underworld heavies such as Tony Mokbel at the height of Melbourne’s gangland wars.

Her tainted information was used in scores of cases: one gangland conviction has been overturned, more are expected to follow. The royal commission heard on Tuesday that Ms Gobbo continued to represent Mokbel in late 2005 and early 2006 after she was registered by Victoria Police as a human source in September 2005.

But Mr Overland said he was not aware that Ms Gobbo was representing Mokbel despite the lawyer appearing in court and applying for subpoenas for him because the case against the drug kingpin was a “commonwealth matter”.

“I was not following who was representing whom,” Mr Overland said.

The royal commission previously heard Ms Gobbo became an informant to escape the thrall of Mokbel and his crime syndicate, which had pushed her to cross professional lines and engage in criminal activities.

On Tuesday, Mr Overland said Ms Gobbo did not provide information on Mokbel but rather on his associates, in an attempt to bring him down by dismantling his criminal network.

“My understanding was that she was around that time providing information about other members of the Mokbel syndicate,” he said.

Mr Overland denied he was “trying to have it both ways” but admitted the situation was messy.

“It was with the intention of building a case against him, using the drug investigations as a means to put pressure on him around the homicides and, yes, it was messy, absolutely it was.”

Mr Overland’s testimony that he didn’t know Ms Gobbo was informing on her clients sits at odds with some earlier testimony.

Sandy White, one of Ms Gobbo’s former police handlers who was giving evidence under a pseudonym, told the inquiry in August that the decision to register Ms Gobbo as an informant in 2005 was discussed with Mr Overland.

Incumbent Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said last Tuesday that when he was a director of the now defunct Office of Police Integrity he believed that the “highest levels” of Victoria Police were aware of Ms Gobbo’s status as an informant.

Mr Overland said on Monday he couldn’t recall if he ever informed the chief commissioner of Victoria Police, Christine Nixon, that Ms Gobbo was acting as an informant. Ms Nixon is due to give evidence on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, Mr Overland said he had made it clear Ms Gobbo was not to inform on her clients and said he trusted his investigators to do the right thing. “They were very experienced detectives,” he said. “I thought they knew what they were doing.”

On Friday, former Victoria Police assistant commissioner Sir Ken Jones told the inquiry Mr Overland fostered a “toxic” bureaucracy in which he could avoid accountability.

Mr Overland left his role as chief executive of Whittlesea council northeast of Melbourne last Wednesday, less than a week before he was due to give evidence.