Mokbel arrives at the Court of Appeal in Melbourne on Friday. Credit: Eddie Jim
Prosecutors disagreed and argued putting Mokbel’s drug offence sentencing on hold while investigations into Gobbo’s role took place, would have seen the case stalled for years while keeping Mokbel “completely in the dark” about why.
Mokbel had orchestrated one of the most infamous escapes in Australian history while awaiting trial for the drug charges. He smuggled himself out of Australia in a specially designed yacht – before being tracked down in Greece a year later, in a restaurant wearing a wig.
MOKBEL’S APPEAL OUTCOME
Operation Quills: Conviction and 13-year prison sentence quashed.
Operation Magnum: Conviction and sentence of 20 years in prison stands.
Operation Orbital: Conviction and 10-year prison term overturned and a retrial ordered.
When returned to Australia and sentenced, he later survived a serious assault in jail in 2019, telling the court he was no longer the same man he once was.
In April, Mokbel was granted bail by the Court of Appeal, as part of his quest to quash his drug-trafficking convictions, subject to about 30 conditions, including a curfew, daily reporting at his nearby police station, a ban on using smartphones or encrypted apps, and an ankle monitoring bracelet. That ankle bracelet was removed recently following changes to the private bail monitoring rules.
The 59-year-old had been behind bars since 2007.
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Despite successfully appealing one of his drug convictions, Mokbel won’t have his entire criminal history erased.
In the early 1980s, he was convicted of offences including assault, threats to kill, resisting police arrest and possessing a firearm.
In 1992, he was then jailed for a year for attempting to bribe a County Court judge. Six years later in 2018, he was also convicted for manufacturing amphetamines.
Gobbo was first registered as a police informer in 1995, but it wasn’t until 10 years later that she was officially given the pseudonym, Informer 3838.
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