4 days ago
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In the whole shambolic mess that involves barrister turned snitch Nicola Gobbo, a court has finally got it right.
The Court of Appeal has thrown out one conviction against drug boss Tony Mokbel, ordered a retrial in a second and upheld the conviction for a third.
Tony Mokbel leaves court on Friday.Credit: Eddie Jim
This means the wise three justices, Stephen McLeish, Maree Kennedy and Stephen Kaye, found Gobbo’s interference in the job called Quills was so comprehensive he should be acquitted, and her involvement in the second (Orbital) was ugly, but there was enough independent evidence to justify a retrial.
But in the third, Magnum, he was guilty as sin and should cop his right whack.
This is precisely the right decision and will hopefully cauterise the ugly legal wound left by Gobbo. It is also exactly the result we predicted two weeks ago, which allows us to use the oldest expression in journalism. I told you so!
Magnum was about Tony’s drug dealing after he jumped bail in 2006, and had nothing to do with Gobbo.
Nicola Gobbo.Credit: ABC
He was done by what he said on phone taps, computer documents found that linked him to drug transactions, information from an inside man known as the musician and the remarkable work of an undercover cop known as “Andy.”
Tony’s own senior counsel at the time, Peter Faris, SC, told him he was cooked and advised him to plead guilty, which he did.
He was sentenced to 20 years for Magnum and has served around 17. So the man with the wig will get a sentencing haircut.
The court may have been tempted to punish the police for their sneaky tactics by throwing all the cases out, but that would have been profoundly unfair.
The court may have been tempted to punish the police for their sneaky tactics by throwing all the cases out, but that would have been profoundly unfair.
Because despite the idiocy of Gobbo’s involvement, one fact remains. Tony Mokbel was a professional, prodigious, and unapologetic drug dealer. And he was good at his job - in 1995 he was worth $127,000 and by the time he was arrested, his syndicate, The Company, had a turnover of $400 million.
Police seized assets worth $55 million. Not only was he a top ten crook, he was a Fortune 500 businessman.
He even protested when he was under investigation for gangland killings, “I’m a drug dealer, not a murderer.”
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While the court may have ordered a retrial on Orbital it isn’t going to happen. It would be a complex, costly and pointless exercise to run the case again. And if he were found guilty, he would likely only be sentenced to time served.
The Office of Public Prosecution will drop the charges and will deem that he has served his time over Magnum, leaving him a free man.
Importantly, he remains a convicted drug trafficker, which is more than a black mark that could slow down an application for the Melbourne Club (in the underworld, for a time, Mokbel was known as The Lord Mayor).
He has been convinced that at the end of the saga he would sue the government and be awarded millions in compensation.
That will be a very hard case to prove now that the Magnum conviction stands.
Since he was bailed, Mokbel has been catching up with friends, many of them colourful, and frequenting a north suburban pub.
Recently, the hotel was visited by gaming authorities wondering why it had been having a massive spike in betting revenue.
Tony always loved a longshot.
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