Detective senior sergeant Tim Argall told the royal commission Gobbo also seemed ‘excited’ by the idea of covert operations

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A policeman who had a sexual relationship with ‘Lawyer X’ Nicola Gobbo says she seemed excited by the the idea of a covert operation based on her informing.

Det Sen Sgt Tim Argall, who was among the first officers to deal with the criminal lawyer in the mid-1990s, says at one point she made up a fictional name for a covert operative and officers had to “run with it”.

After first trying to tip off police to a man buying illegal guns she then turned on her former lover Brian Wilson, with allegations of drug trafficking leading to an undercover operation, Argall told a royal commission into police use of informers on Monday.

Lawyer X: the extraordinary story laid out before royal commission Read more

Argall said in one instance she told Wilson the name of a character to be played by a covert agent, before the police operation and without permission.

“She had done that without any consultation from us and I think that had caused a degree of angst,” the detective said. “She just plucked a name and we had to run with it.”

Counsel assisting the commission, Chris Winneke QC, suggested Gobbo was “getting into the spirit and enjoying the process”.

Argall’s association with Gobbo continued socially and in 1997 there was what Winneke described as an “episode of physical intimacy”. He also took her to a police ball and attended other social events.

Questions about inappropriate relationships between Gobbo and police officers have been raised in the commission.

Argall maintained contact through the years and was seeing her monthly through 2003 and 2004.

The former drug squad detective Paul Dale was also seeing her socially at the time, he said.

Gobbo’s barrister, Rishi Nathwani, suggested to Argall that police sometimes logged tips from her as Crime Stoppers reports or through search warrants on the then barrister’s chambers to protect her identity. He denied knowledge of both.

The former assistant commissioner Jeff Pope, who was Gobbo’s handler in 1999, took to the stand on Monday afternoon saying in his “very vague recollection she was very keen to assist and seemed to be reliable”.

Pope was in the middle of a law degree at the time he signed her and admitted knowing she was a barrister, but said he was not sure he was aware of her duties of confidentiality and legal professional privilege.

Gobbo was registered a third time between 2007 and 2009 while representing some of the most prominent figures in Melbourne’s gangland wars, including Carl Williams and Tony Mokbel.

Det Insp Gavan Segrave, who endorsed Gobbo’s 1999 informer registration, earlier revealed he had made a conscious decision to hide his prior involvement with her when advising an assistant commissioner for a legal case around her third recruitment in 2010.