The China Mail - Australian kingpin obtains shorter sentence over drug charge

Tony Mokbel -- one of the key figures in Melbourne's years-long gangland war -- was handed a 30-year prison sentence in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

Violence linked to his group, known as "The Company", claimed dozens of lives and was later immortalised in the hugely popular Australian TV series "Underbelly".

But it was later revealed that Mokbel's high-profile lawyer at the time, Nicola Gobbo, was feeding information to police while supposedly defending her clients.

Mokbel spent about 18 years behind bars but was released on bail in April after a court ruled he had a strong chance of overturning the criminal convictions.

His appeal hinged on the fact he would not have pleaded guilty if he had been aware of Gobbo's double life, his legal team told Victoria's Court of Appeal this year.

The court subsequently acquitted him of one charge and ordered a possible retrial for another.

Thursday's ruling related to a third charge linked to the trafficking of more than 41 kilograms of methylamphetamine between 2006 and 2007. The appeal was quashed but Mokbel obtained a shorter prison sentence.

He was initially given 20 years for that charge, which the Victorian Court of Appeal downgraded on Thursday to 13 years, seven months and 15 days in jail -- time he has already served.

The justices said his crimes had been "very grave", but there had been "unusual circumstances" which had informed Thursday's decision.

They noted he was a first-time drug offender and had suffered a serious injury while serving time.

Mokbel remains on bail ahead of a possible retrial relating to another case.

The court ruling is just the latest in what could be many more -- prosecutors informed 22 people that they could have grounds to appeal in 2019.

Gobbo -- also referred to as Lawyer X and Informer 3838 -- claims that over 300 people were arrested and charged based on the information she provided.

A 2020 Royal Commission of inquiry found Gobbo's double life during a period of intense gang bloodletting in Australia's second-biggest city were "fundamental and appalling breaches" of her obligations as counsel to her clients.

She was a key police source during the critical years of gangland prosecutions between 2005 and 2009, but was also registered as an informant as far back as 1999, two years before she was admitted to practice law.

She was recruited as a police informer after being charged with drug offences in 1993.

Victorian police spent five years and millions of dollars fighting in the courts to keep Gobbo's identity a secret, maintaining that she could be murdered if it came to light.

Y.Parker--ThChM