Tony Mokbel cites loophole to reverse drug-trafficking plea

111019 Tony Mokbel

Tony Mokbel, who will apply to change his guilty plea, is led into a police van at the Supreme Court in Melbourne yesterday. Picture: AAP
Source: AAP




FORMER Melbourne drug boss Tony Mokbel will today seek to reverse his plea on trafficking offences, looking to use a possible legal loophole to be acquitted of charges to which he pleaded guilty only six months ago.


Lawyers for Mokbel yesterday argued in the Victorian Supreme Court that his change of heart, based on new evidence that some Victoria Police officers had not been properly swearing affidavits, should be kept secret in case a future trial did occur.

The County Court this month heard that some police had simply been signing affidavits provided to the courts instead of swearing them on oath, raising questions about their legitimacy.

Grace Morgan, representing Mokbel, said search warrants and telephone intercepts were key in the case against him.

Mokbel pleaded guilty in April to trafficking methylamphetamine and ecstasy in a deal with prosecutors in which eight other drug charges were dropped. He is serving a minimum nine-year sentence for importing cocaine, imposed while he was in hiding after skipping bail during his 2006 trial.

Ms Morgan asked the Supreme Court for an order suppressing the fact that Mokbel wanted to change his plea, saying the publicity would be prejudicial for a jury. “This is a case where the damage that will be done in the event that Mr Mokbel does indeed face further trial on these charges will be great,” she said.

Judge Simon Whelan refused to grant a suppression order, a decision that Ms Morgan then took to the Court of Appeal last night and lost.

Judge Marcia Neave, sitting on the appellate court, said if Mokbel did successfully change his plea and go to trial, the fact of his earlier guilty plea would probably be used by prosecutors as an admission of guilt.

Mokbel will return to court today when his lawyers outline why he should be allowed to change his plea.

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