Underworld kingpin Rob Karam closer to appeal

Jailed for 35 years for drug trafficking, Rob Karam edges closer to fighting sentence.

Purana task force officers arrest Rob Karam, left. Picture: Supplied

Jailed Victorian underworld kingpin Rob Karam is closer to appealing his 35-year drug trafficking sentence, as his lawyers try to unmask what the Office of Public Prosecutions knew about Nicola Gobbo’s informant status when they prosecuted him.

On Wednesday, Victoria’s Supreme Court referred issues about “disputed” facts in Karam’s case to a single judge of the trial division. When and what Ms Gobbo, also known as Lawyer X, told Victoria Police about Karam while she was representing him is one of the disputed facts set to be straightened out.

The Supreme court will also investigate what the nature of Karam and Ms Gobbo’s lawyer-client relationship was between June 2007 and June 2015.

They will seek to find out what role Ms Gobbo played in the “tomato tins trial”, which Karam was ultimately convicted for after attempting to import 15 million ecstasy pills in tomato paste tins from Italy in 2007.

As well, the court will try to discover whether or not Ms Gobbo profited from disclosing information to Victoria Police.

Supreme Court justice David Beach ordered the issues be resolved in the trial division of the court.

He said Karam’s call for an appeal to his conviction was based on four complaints, including that Ms Gobbo improperly influenced his defence and that he was denied independent counsel.

“Each application for leave raises the conduct of (Ms) Gobbo as a police informer,” he said.

The court heard Karam believed he had not “simply been deprived of a fair trial”, but that he was the “victim of a deliberate abuse of process”.

Karam paid at least $245,000 to Ms Gobbo to act as his lawyer.

The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants found Ms Gobbo took advantage of her relationship with Karam – her client at the time – and gave police a receipt with details about an impending shipment of MDMA in tomato tins to tip them off. In 2007, the seizure was considered to be the world’s biggest ecstasy bust.

Along with Karam, 33 others were arrested following a joint operation by Victoria Police and the Australian Federal Police over the failed importation.

Tony Mokbel is also attempting to have his drug trafficking convictions overturned because Ms Gobbo represented him at the same time she was snitching to Victoria Police.