“I’d certainly agree that the ethics were f---ed,” Mr Overland said. Mr Winneke asked him if the use of Ms Gobbo could amount to illegal conduct, including perversion of the course of justice. “It could do,” Mr Overland replied. “But I think you'd need a lot more facts to come to a concluded view about that. But I can see the problem, I accept the problem.” Mr Overland said he didn’t know Ms Gobbo was giving police information about her clients, but that he should have.

“Do you accept as a person who was ultimately responsible for this investigation that if you didn’t know you should have known?” Mr Winneke asked. Loading “Yes,” Mr Overland replied. Mr Overland made the concession during questioning about Victoria Police’s use of Ms Gobbo to bring down Tony Mokbel’s drug syndicate and, in particular, one of his drug cooks in 2006. The cook told Ms Gobbo where one of his drug laboratories were. Ms Gobbo told her handlers and then continued to act as his lawyer, encouraging him to roll and help police bring down the syndicate.

Mr Overland said he knew Ms Gobbo had acted for the cook in the past, but maintained he did not know she continued to act for him after providing information. He also maintained he did not know Ms Gobbo continued to act for drug boss Mokbel even though there was significant publicity about him after he fled drug charges to Greece in 2006. “I suggest to you it was fanciful you were not aware she was representing Mokbel at the time,” Mr Winneke said. “No, I don't recall whether I did or didn't. It's not fanciful. I was not following who was representing whom,” Mr Overland said. But Ms Gobbo was the only barrister working as an informer at the time, Mr Winneke said, and Mr Overland should have known.

“I've accepted responsibility, I've said that,” Mr Overland said. Mr Overland said he left it up to investigators to manage how they used Ms Gobbo's information and separated himself from the source development unit who looked after her day to day. "I assumed, more than I assumed, I knew them to be compentent, I knew them to be highly experienced. I assumed they would be dealing with these issues," he said. Victoria Police's use of Ms Gobbo's information has led to one conviction being quashed and several more put in serious doubt. Mokbel is appealing his 30-year sentence for major drug trafficking as a result of the scandal. Mr Overland, who joined Victoria Police as a commissioner from the Australian Federal Police in 2003, is giving evidence for the second day at the royal commission investigating the force's use of the former barrister known as Informer 3838.