Tony Mokbel pictured as judge finds Victoria Police, Nicola Gobbo engaged in ‘joint criminal enterprise’ to get him

The Melbourne underworld kingpin, who is serving a 26-year sentence, appeared happy to see his lawyers as he notched a win in his bid for release.

Tony Mokbel is seen arriving to the Supreme Court in Melbourne Picture: NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui.

Victoria Police and barrister-turned-police informer Nicola Gobbo engaged in a “joint criminal enterprise” to pervert the course of justice in order to bring down Melbourne underworld figure Tony Mokbel, a Supreme Court judge has held.

In her finding of facts, Justice Elizabeth Fullerton also held that former Victorian Director of Public Prosecutions John Champion breached his duties by failing to disclose to Mokbel that his barrister Nicola Gobbo had been secretly informing against him to police.

Mokbel, who is currently serving 26 years in prison, is appealing for freedom following the Lawyer X scandal which revealed Ms Gobbo’s double life as a police informer.

Ms Gobbo fed Victoria Police information behind Mokbel’s back while acting as his lawyer, including when Mokbel absconded to Greece and upon his return to Australia to stand trial.

Mokbel argues that the conduct of Ms Gobbo and Victoria Police meant his extradition and subsequent prosecution were “fundamentally flawed” and is seeking to have his convictions overturned.

On Monday, the drug kingpin was escorted into the Supreme Court by two security officers.

He sat in the dock wearing a suit and white shirt, and smiled while saying hello to his lawyers.

Justice Fullerton held that Ms Gobbo’s role as a registered informer was revealed to Mr Champion, now a judge of the Supreme Court, at a meeting with senior Victoria Police members in September 2012.

“I was satisfied the Director had sufficient information as at September 2012 to activate his independent duty of disclosure and that he failed to do so in breach of that duty,” Justice Fullerton said.

“I was unable to comfortably reach a conclusion as to why the director breached his duty of disclosure… other than as a result of it being an error of judgement.”

Justice Fullerton’s findings were also scathing of Victoria Police and its former chief commissioner Simon Overland.

“I was unable to conceive of how or why it was not obvious to officers in senior command, including Mr Overland, that there were obvious legal risks… in registering and using her [Ms Gobbo] as an informer against her current clients,” she said.

“In my view… there is every likelihood that Victoria Police would have been advised against registering her as an informer at all, so great were the legal and ethical risks in doing so.”

Justice Fullerton said that on the balance of probabilities she was satisfied the elements of a joint criminal enterprise to pervert the course of justice were made out and four members of Victoria Police participated with Ms Gobbo to achieve an unlawful objective.

“Mr Gobbo’s registration was itself improper, in the sense that it was contrary to the acceptable standards of behaviour to which police officers are expected to adhere,” she said.

Justice Fullerton said she did not accept that concerns for Ms Gobbo’s safety justified repeated failures by Victoria Police to discharge obligations to disclose Ms Gobbo’s role as an informer to the court and Mr Mokbel.

Justice Fullerton said Ms Gobbo’s primary motivation for becoming an informer was to “work hand in glove” with Victoria Police to ensure Mokbel was investigated, prosecuted and convicted.

“On repeated occasions, she spoke in derogatory terms about him, and his conduct in her view as a career criminal and her desire to be rid of him as her client,” Justice Fullerton said.

But Justice Fullerton said for many years before this, Ms Gobbo was “apparently enjoying the benefits” of the profile she was acquiring with Mokbel as her primary client, and that there was also likely a “psychological” dimension to Ms Gobbo’s motivation and her “apparent enjoyment at being an informer”.

Justice Fullerton said Ms Gobbo’s conduct constituted a “fundamental and deliberate breach” of her legal and ethical obligations as a lawyer.

Justice Fullerton’s findings on 24 questions of fact will inform the Court of Appeal in its decision as to whether Mr Mokbel’s drug trafficking convictions should stand.