Court in the Act: The inside story of Melbourne’s biggest snitch, underbelly lawyer Nicola Gobbo

He was one of the biggest figures in Melbourne’s underbelly. She was his lawyer. And, as it turns out, the biggest snitch of all.

“In simple terms, Nicola Gobbo wasn’t properly representing her clients,” criminal lawyer Katherine Dowling tells the Court in the Act podcast.

“She was snitching. She wasn’t telling them she was snitching. And they had a right to know that she was snitching before they decided to use her. “

Tony Mokbel is widely regarded as the organiser of Melbourne’s methamphetamine business.

And in 2006 he became Australia’s most wanted man, escaping the country on a yacht bound for Greece. He was caught a year later, wearing what would become the most famous wig in Australian crime.

Beside him through all of it was Gobbo. A prominent Melbourne lawyer she acted for many of the underworld, including Carl Williams.

But unbeknown to them, she was simultaneously acting for another — Melbourne police.

“We have to remember that at the time in Victoria and the late ‘90s, early noughties, there was a war,” Ms Dowling said.

“It was an outright war. It felt like every few months someone was being shot in front of their children in a restaurant in broad daylight.

“And the police had no control. It was lawlessness, and they were desperate. And the public was terrified.

“And I think probably at that point, everyone felt that the ends justify the means.”

Years of informing on her clients earned her the nickname Lawyer X and the police several high-profile collars.

But she couldn’t stay secret for long. The scandal rocked Australia. Criminals started appealing convictions, on the basis that Gobbo’s evidence was tainted.

Including Mokbel — in court this month appealing his sentence for serious drug charges.

On this week’s episode of Court in the Act, Ms Dowling joins host Tim Clarke to comb through the history of Tony Mokbel and his extraordinary claims about the lawyer who used to defend him.

Listen now.