Jailed crime lord ‘Fat’ Tony Mokbel has spilled the beans on how detectives crushed his illicit empire at the close of the ‘Underbelly War’.
The former crime boss, who had ruled Melbourne’s underworld through the 1990s and early 2000s, appeared before the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday in an attempt to secure early release over the ongoing Lawyer X scandal.
Dressed in a dark pinstriped suit and striped purple tie, the now 58-year old looked every inch the feared gangster he once was, complete with a facial tic that saw him snarl through his evidence.
Tony Mokbel as pictured in his prime back in 2006 – the year he claims he fled Australia after receiving advice from disgraced lawyer Nicola Gobbo that he was about to be hit with three murder charges
Court sketch of underworld figure Tony Mokbel from his appearance at the Supreme Court of Victoria on Tuesday – he appeared healthy despite years behind bars and a savage 2019 attempt on his life that saw him repeatedly shanked by prison rivals
Mokbel appeared otherwise healthy despite years behind bars and a savage 2019 attempt on his life that saw him repeatedly shanked by prison rivals.
During a hearing last year, it was revealed Mokbel continues to suffer a traumatic brain injury stemming from the attack and had been hospitalised for heart attacks.
Insisting he stand up while giving evidence, Mokbel claimed he fled Australia in 2006 after receiving advice from disgraced lawyer Nicola Gobbo that he was about to be hit with three murder charges.
Mokbel had already been looking down the barrel of a lengthy jail sentence at the time after being charged with serious drug trafficking offences.
Purana taskforce detectives – the Victoria Police crew responsible for ending Melbourne’s gangland war – had already gone about crushing his criminal empire by restraining his access to $15million in cash and assets.
The court heard police seized real estate across Victoria and Queensland, including multiple properties in Brunswick, Noosa and the Red Lion Hotel in Kilmore.
Cops took Mokbel’s Ferrari roadster and froze cash he held in the NAB and ANZ banks.
Mokbel after he was stabbed in Barwon Prison in 2019, from which he continues to suffer a traumatic brain injury
Mokbel was so broke he could not afford to run the upcoming drug trial let alone defend a murder rap.
Gobbo was exposed as police informer superstar Lawyer X in March 2019.
She had acted for many of Melbourne’s crooks, including Mokbel and the now deceased gangster Carl Williams.
Williams was bludgeoned to death in jail before he even got a chance to see his former lawyer implicated in the grubby scandal.
Mokbel has already enjoyed several legal wins over Gobbo’s meddling in his affairs.
A 2006 conviction for cocaine importation was quashed in 2020 due to the Lawyer X scandal.
Last year his 2012 sentence for drug trafficking was slashed from 30 years’ jail with a minimum term of 22 years to a total of 26 years with a non-parole period of 20 years.
Mokbel appeared in court on Tuesday as part of a 12-week hearing which he hopes will conclude that his conviction should be overturned altogether.
Gobbo had first met Mokbel in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 1998 when she was acting as a junior for barrister Alex Lewenberg.
Mokbel claimed she had been acting on behalf of his brother.
In 2002, Mokbel said Gobbo visited him in jail while he was on remand for drug charges.
Nicola Gobbo, aka Lawyer X, represented Mokbel after first meeting him at the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court in 1998
She had been acting as barrister Con Heliotis’ junior and asked if she could come onboard.
‘I honestly didn’t realise she was a barrister. I thought she was just a clerk at Lewenberg’s office,’ he said.
Mokbel claimed Gobbo gave him the hard sell, assuring him she would work hard for him.
‘She was an extremely hard working barrister compared to others,’ Mokbel said.
‘She did all the administration stuff that a lawyer would do, which you don’t see from barristers. She was constantly telling me to ring her, she was constantly coming into see me. She just put me on a pedestal … which was great for me because it was a big case.’
Mokbel claimed the pair would often discuss his legal matters on the outside over coffee and dinners.
The gangster claims he only fled in 2006 – mid-trial – because Gobbo warned him police were looking to charge him with murder.
‘She told me that I’m going to be charged with three murders and I should seriously think about absconding,’ he told the court.
Police later charged him with the murders of Lewis Moran and Michael Marshall at the height of Melbourne’s underworld war.
Gobbo and gangland killer Carl Williams. The dead gangster suspected Gobbo had been ratting on him and his crook mates
Faruk Orman walked free from jail on the back of the Lawyer X scandal
Mokbel said he trusted Gobbo fully, describing her as ‘the engine’ to his legal defences.
‘We’d discuss everything. She was the driving machine as far as legal advice,’ he said.
‘I trusted her fully. I trusted her more than Heliotis. I thought she was the staunchest person on earth .. I’m still shocked to be quite honest.’
Mokbel said he re-engaged with Gobbo after his arrest in Greece, hoping she could help his Greek lawyer stop his extradition back to Australia.
When back in Australia he would communicate with Gobbo on a ‘burner phone’ inside Barwon prison, which he had smuggled to him in a boxing bag by Williams.
Charges were later dropped against Mokbel on the Marshall case and he was cleared by a jury on the Moran murder.
The Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants, handing down its findings in 2021, revealed more than 1,000 crooks could be released or earn retrials because of Gobbo’s unlawful informing to Victoria Police.
Commissioner Margaret McMurdo AO concluded that the convictions or findings of guilt of 1,011 people may have been affected by Victoria Police’s use of Gobbo as a human source.
‘She told police about Mr Mokbel’s properties, finances, contact numbers, associates, and the vehicles and code names he used,’ Commissioner McMurdo said then.
‘She divulged the defence strategies and tactics used by Mr Mokbel’s legal team, both in his criminal trial and his extradition proceedings.’
Melbourne underworld figure Faruk Orman walked free in 2019 after 12 years behind bars after Victoria’s Court of Appeal found he should be acquitted due to Ms Gobbo’s actions while she was representing him.
The hearing continues.
