Nicola Maree Gobbo, sometimes known as Nikki Gobbo, (born 16 November 1972)"Exhibit RC0015 Affidavit to the Board of Examiners, 4 February 1997", application for admission to practice as a barrister and solicitor, Supreme Court of Victoria is an Australian former criminal defence barrister and police informant.
Drug charge at law school In 1993, while she was a law student, police raided a house owned by Gobbo and found amphetamines, marijuana, and weapons. Gobbo, her boyfriend, the drug dealer Brian Wilson, and another man were charged with drug possession and pleaded guilty. Gobbo was given a good behaviour bond. Two years later, another raid turned up more amphetamines. Gobbo was concerned that another drug conviction would destroy her law career. No charges were laid, and soon afterwards, she was registered as police informer G395 although she claimed to be unaware of the fact until finding it out through the media.
1996 election scandal Gobbo first came to public attention during the 1996 Australian federal election. In the last week of the campaign, Labor Treasurer Ralph Willis used letters purportedly from Jeff Kennett criticising Liberal leader John Howard. The letters were quickly exposed as forgeries. Gobbo, then a Young Labor member, publicly claimed that the forger was then-Liberal staffer and later Senate president Scott Ryan, who had intended for the forgery to pass initial inspection then rebound on Labor. Despite Gobbo's signed statutory declaration, Ryan denied the claim.
Witness Gobbo, under the pseudonym WitnessF, was a witness against Paul Dale, a former policeman accused of corruption. She asserted that Australian authorities have not fulfilled assurances made to her about protecting her safety. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation repeated that Gobbo asserted she had received death threats due to her planned testimony. On 16April 2008, Gobbo's parked car was engulfed in flames. After the death of Carl Williams on 9April 2010 and Gobbo's refusal to testify, the case was withdrawn. Shortly afterwards Gobbo revealed in an interview with the ABC that she was WitnessF in the Paul Dale case.
In February 2019 a 2016 affidavit written by Inspector Brooke Hall stated that Mick Gatto and Horty Mokbel and others had threatened to kill Gobbo if it was proven that she had been providing information to Victoria Police. At the same time it was also revealed that a threat was made against her oldest child.
It was reported in 2019 that Gobbo had declined to enter witness protection as "she feared police more than her former clients" and was using the name Nikki Gobbo.
Lawyer X scandal
Whilst originally understood to be a registered police informant from 2005 to 2009 it was later revealed that Gobbo was recruited as a registered police informant in 1995, 1999 and again in 2005 and was still providing information in 2010 at which time police were instructed that they could no longer accept information from her. Despite this Gobbo continued to offer police information until 2012.
Between September 2005 and January 2009 Gobbo was responsible for more than 5,000 reports and regularly spoke to Purana Taskforce detectives whilst working as a defence lawyer for many of Melbourne's organised crime figures. She passed to Victoria Police information about her clients whilst representing them, leading to the prospect of many convictions being overturned. During media coverage of the scandal in 2018 and 2019, Gobbo's identity was subject to a suppression order, and she was referred to as EF, Lawyer X or Informer 3838. The suppression order was lifted in December 2018 when it was reported that she had represented convicted criminals, Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel. On 3 December 2018, the Premier of Victoria Daniel Andrews ordered the Royal Commission into the Management of Police Informants. As part of its inquiry, the Royal Commission examined the number of, and extent to which, criminal cases may have been affected by the conduct of Gobbo. The commission was due to report to the Government in July 2019; however, as the inquiry proceeded it became clear that this timeline was not achievable. In May 2019 the commission received $20 million in additional funding and a twelve-month extension to July 2020. The commission delivered the final report and recommendations to the Governor on 30 November 2020.
In May 2019, it was reported that some of Gobbo's clients who received criminal convictions could be potentially overturned on appeal, on the basis that Gobbo may have provided information to police that led to the conviction of her clients, whilst at the same time representing her clients as their defence lawyer. At the time of lifting the suppression order to reveal Gobbo's identity, the High Court found that [Gobbo] covertly informing on [her] clients was a "fundamental and appalling breach" of the barrister's obligations. In handing down their decision on appeal from the Supreme Court of Victoria, Appeals Court, the judges commented:
In 2020, whilst the Royal Commission was still in progress, Victoria Police offered to arrange and pay for her to move to a country without an extradition treaty with Australia so that she would not be able to be investigated or prosecuted for her actions in the LawyerX matter.
After the end of the Royal Commission, Gobbo told the ABC that she was concerned that Victoria Police might attempt to stop her from working with the special investigator appointed to examine if charges should be laid in connection with the matter.
Convictions affected The actions of Gobbo in acting as an informant for Victoria Police whilst acting as a lawyer has caused a number of convictions, believed to be over 1,000, to be affected, with several people subsequently set free. Shadow Attorney-General of Victoria Edward O'Donohue said that the Victorian Government must explain how it is going to manage the convictions that are being overturned.
As a consequence of the actions of Gobbo, as disclosed in the AB v CD case and the Royal Commission, there are multiple people who may have been denied a fair trial, with 124 convictions called tainted, others having their convictions reviewed, and more than 1,000 case possibly affected as Gobbo represented or gave legal advice to 1297 individuals with the Royal Commission putting the number at 1,011.
Tony Mokbel had a conviction for importation of a commercial quantity of cocaine in 2000 quashed by the Victorian Court of Appeal on 15December 2020 with the President of the Court, Chris Maxwell, calling the actions of Gobbo and those that facilitated her informing "disgraceful". At the time of the ruling Maxwell stated that the court would decide at a later date if the charges would be reinstated but prosecutors of the Commonwealth of Australia noted that they would not continue the matter in that situation. Faruk Orman was initially convicted of the 1May 2002 killing of 43-year-old Victor Peirce but on 26July 2019, due to what was described as "a substantial miscarriage of justice" in calling Victoria Police to warn them that a key witness against Orman was wavering about giving evidence, the conviction was set aside and a judgement of acquittal was entered. Gobbo, in an interview with ABC, stated that Orman should not have been convicted due to lack of transparency including the possibility that some materials had been withheld from his defence. Even though Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said that "we apologise for getting this wrong", Victoria Police have argued against compensating Faruk as "The miscarriage of justice was due to Gobbo's conduct" and not officers of Victoria Police. Zlate Cvetanovski had his conviction for commercial drug trafficking overturned on 30October 2020 with around 1 year left following 11 years in custody after Gobbo, whilst acting for Zlate, convinced a key witness to co-operate with Victoria Police and testify against him. In quashing the conviction the Court of Appeal justice declared that there had been a "substantial miscarriage of justice" which was followed by prosecutors saying that a retrial of the case would be unjust.
Tomato tins ecstasy case On 8August 2008, Australian Federal Police announced the arrest of 17 people New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and Victoria and the seizure of in relation to an attempt to import 4.4tonnes of ecstasy in what was described by Australian Customs as the world's largest ever ecstasy seizure. The 15-16million pills were discovered by Customs in Melbourne packed in over 3,000 tomato tins inside a container from Italy on 28June 2007. This was followed in 2008 by the 24June 2008 seizure of 150 kg of a white powder that testing indicated was cocaine. By December 2008 the number of people who had been arrested in relation to the attempted importations had reached 26.
At the Royal Commission it was revealed that the drug operation was uncovered due to information provided by Gobbo which she had gotten from her client Rob Karam. Gobbo also provided police with phone numbers which were used to gain additional information on the group. It was also noted that police had concluded that the convictions were tainted in 2011 but even though Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton testified that prosecutors would normally be told, that information was not given to Commonwealth prosecutors.
Pasquale Barbaro was accused of heading the importation syndicate and, after pleading guilty and agreeing to a deal with prosecutors for a shorter sentence was sentenced to life in prison after the Victorian Supreme Court judge who sentenced him declined to hear the prosecution submission. In late 2018 Rob Karam began legal action to challenge his conviction based on the actions of Gobbo including the fact that she had passed on information received from him to Victoria Police. After being represented by Gobbo in an early appeal, Saverio Zirilli pleaded guilty to conspiracy to traffic ecstasy pills and cocaine after agreeing to a deal with prosecutors for a shorter sentence and, in 2012, was sentenced to a minimum of 18 years and a maximum of 26 years in jail after the Victorian Supreme Court judge who sentenced him declined to hear the prosecution submission. In 2020 Zirilli applied for leave to appeal his conviction, citing a substantial miscarriage of justice. In applying for bail whilst his appeal was being prepared it was argued that Zirilli would not have pleaded guilty if he had known that Gobbo was an informer, it would likely take at least 12 months for the appeal, and the fact that the Victoria Police would not have known about him without information provided by Gobbo. The application for bail was denied as the prospect of a successful appeal were deemed to be no more than "reasonable". John Higgs was sentenced to jail for 18 years for his part in the attempted importation of 15million pills of ecstasy. In January 2012 Higgs submitted an appeal to the Court of Appeal and in April applied for bail whilst his appeal was being considered arguing that the trail was compromised due to the lack of independence in the advice that Higgs received from Gobbo whilst acting as his solicitor however the bail application was refused based on the likelihood of success of his appeal. Kevin Armstrong who represented the director of public prosecutions argued that there was no disadvantage as Gobbo did not appear in court on behalf of Higgs. Salvatore Agresta, who was originally sentenced to 12years in prison with an 8year non-parole period, was released on bail on 14December 2020 by the Victorian Court of Appeal as he had already completed the non-parole period of his sentence. Agresta's appeal is complicated by the fact that he had the sentence combined with that of an additional drug related conviction.
Reaction