Two of underworld figure Tony Mokbel's convictions must be set aside because barrister-turned-informer Nicola Gobbo's improper actions "infected" the cases, an appeal court has ruled.
Mokbel, 60, walked jovially into the Victorian Court of Appeal on Friday morning, hoping all three of his drug trafficking and importation convictions would be quashed.
But justices Stephen McLeish, Maree Kennedy and Stephen Kaye only ruled in his favour on two convictions - known under the police operation names Quills and Orbital.
They found Ms Gobbo, who was a registered Victoria Police informer, encouraged two of her clients to "roll" against Mokbel and give statements to police.
At the same time, she was representing Mokbel in court or providing him with legal advice.
Police relied on the evidence from one of her clients, known under the pseudonym Mr Bickley, to prosecute the underworld figure on the Quills drug trafficking charge, the court found.
"The conflicted role of Ms Gobbo in relation to Mr Bickley ... involved a fundamental debasement of (her) professional obligations and infected the Quills prosecution as a whole," the judges wrote in the 155-page judgment.
"It was offensive and an affront to justice to put (Mokbel) on trial on the Quills charge."
The court determined there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice and Mokbel's conviction in that matter should be quashed.
The Orbital drug importation conviction was also set aside but the justices determined Mokbel should face a retrial.
In their judgment, the judges accepted the evidence of Mr Bickley was significant in the matter but found there could have still been a trial if his statement was excluded.
It was up to prosecutors to decide whether Mokbel should face another trial or if his close to 18 years in prison meant the charge should be discontinued, they said.
The Office of Public Prosecutions would not comment on the appeal decision.
On the third conviction, dubbed Magnum, the court threw out Mokbel's appeal.
"The applicant has fallen well short of establishing that there was a real question as to his guilt in the Magnum matter," the judges said.
Mokbel had claimed he suffered a substantial miscarriage of justice in all of his cases because of Ms Gobbo, who was unmasked as Lawyer X in 2019.
She was registered as a Victoria Police informer from 2005 to 2009 and was acting as Mokbel's lawyer for four years before he fled to Greece in 2006.
She continued to advise him when he was extradited back to Melbourne in 2008.
Mokbel ultimately pleaded guilty to the three charges in 2011.
The Quills charge related to allegations Mokbel trafficked more than 30kg of MDMA in 2005 while he was on bail for separate offences.
Orbital related to claims he dealt with two undercover officers in June 2005, believing they were international MDMA suppliers, and tried to import 100kg of the drug.
The Magnum charge, for which the conviction stands, related to Mokbel trafficking more than 41kg of methylamphetamine in June 2006 and June 2007 while he was on the run.
He absconded from the state in March 2006 while he was on trial for allegedly importing two kilograms of cocaine in 2000 - known as the Plutonium charge.
That conviction was set aside in 2020 after prosecutors conceded there had been a miscarriage of justice as he had been represented by Ms Gobbo.
The 60-year-old, who was released on bail in April, did not answer questions from reporters as he left the Court of Appeal on Friday.
His next hearing is listed in the Victorian Supreme Court on October 29 in relation to a possible re-trial on the Orbital charge.
Mokbel will then return to the Court of Appeal in November to discuss re-sentencing for the Magnum offence.
