Nicola Gobbo

Nicola Maree Gobbo, sometimes known as Nikki Gobbo, (born 16 November 1972) 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. Shortly afterwards Gobbo revealed in an interview with the ABC that she was WitnessF in the Paul Dale case.

It was reported in 2019 that Gobbo had declined to enter witness protection as "she feared police more than her former clients" 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. 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.

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. 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", 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.

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. 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. Redlich also noted that the outcome of the Royal Commission could be expected to add to the workload of IBAC and consequently require increased funding but it lacks the powers it needs to fully investigate police officers. Matt Collins, President of the Victorian Bar expressed the opinion that "It would be wrong, and very unfair to the Victorian legal profession, including the 2,100 practising members of the Victorian Bar, to think that conduct of the kind that has been alleged is anything other than wholly aberrant." During a hearing on an appeal by Tony Mokbel, President of the Victorian Court of Appeal Justice Maxwell called the actions of Gobbo and others involved in her informing "disgraceful" and a "matter of profound importance". Edward O'Donohue, in his role of Shadow Attorney-General in the Parliament of Victoria, said that the behaviour of Gobbo put the "integrity of the Victorian justice system at stake" and was critical of Victoria Police for both their lack of keeping diaries and their failure to provide documents to the Royal Commission, something which he described as "astounding and unacceptable". Before the report of the Royal Commission was released, Attorney-General of Victoria Jill Hennessy referred the case of Faruk Orman to the Court of Appeal citing "credible evidence that there may have been a miscarriage of justice in Mr Orman's case arising from Nicola Gobbo's conduct and use as a human source by Victoria Police." After the release of the report she said "What we've seen and learnt throughout this royal commission over the past two years is truly appalling" and promised to implement all of the recommendations. Former crown prosecutor in Victoria, Gavin Silbert, said that "It trashes the whole criminal-justice system" and "If people can't seek legal advice without being turned over, being betrayed by a legal practitioner, it's the fundamental root of the whole system we operate on." The Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner Fiona McLeay, responded to the final report of the Royal Commission by noting the damage that Gobbo had done to the reputation of the legal profession and justice system and the ethical breaches that she committed whilst undertaking to be involved with implementing the recommendations listed in the report. In the early stages of the Royal Commission, Melbourne University law professor Jeremy Gans declared that "Nothing to this extreme, that we know of, has happened anywhere in the world". Lawyer Daniel Gurvich , supporting the mandatory reporting requirements proposed in the Royal Commission, described the actions of Gobbo as "dispiriting and depressing".

By those involved

In response to the criticism of Findlay McRae during the Royal Commission, Shane Patton said that McRae "has the full support of Victoria Police" and that he "acquitted himself appropriately in the discharge of his responsibilities". Victoria Police said that "it accepts without qualification or reservation" the reprehensibility of facilitating the actions of Gobbo in informing on her clients and blamed systemic failings based on inadequate or misunderstood processes rather than corrupt behaviour by individuals. They also claimed that their intent was for Gobbo to inform on her criminal associates rather than her clients but such an approach became unmanageable due to her actions. After earlier indicating a willingness to listen to the recommendations of the Royal Commission and stating that "I will take whatever steps are necessary to reform once we get the report", Chief Commissioner Shane Patton called the use of Gobbo a "profound failure by our organisation" and "an indefensible interference in the lawyer-client relationship that is a fundamental requirement for the proper functioning of our criminal justice system". After the release of the recommendations in which McMurdo described some of Ashton's media interviews as suggesting a "desperate times, desperate measures" excuse, former Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton conceded that he should have done more during his time at the OPI including probing more deeply but he "can sleep at night" as he is both satisfied with what he did at the time and is very confident that his conduct was not criminal. After being released from prison Faruk Orman called Victoria Police a "powerful, dangerous organisation" and argued for accountability and transparency but stated in an interview with ABC News that he "wouldn't wish jail upon them. I wouldn't wish for them to experience what I've been through, at their hands".

The 9 episodes of season two of the ABC investigative podcast Trace covers the actions of Gobbo and includes interviews with her.

When the TV show Desperate Housewives first premiered in Australia in 2004, Gobbo was one of the Australian women from whom The Age sought a reaction.