Notorious gangland figure Tony Mokbel has offered a $500,000 surety to be released on bail, and will agree to stringent conditions including GPS tracking.

The 59-year-old, who is serving a 26-year prison term for drug trafficking, arrived at court in a Victoria Police armoured BearCat vehicle earlier today.

Mokbel is asking the Court of Appeal to free him on bail ahead of his long-awaited Lawyer X appeal, which would be his first taste of freedom since being arrested in Greece in 2007.

Dressed in a black suit and blue tie, Mokbel smiled as he winked and waved at his supporters when he was brought into court, flanked by four Special Operations Group officers.

Mokbel was jailed in 2012 after striking a deal with prosecutors and pleading guilty to two counts of trafficking a drug of dependence, being MDMA and methamphetamine.

He is now appealing all of his convictions as he was represented by ‘Lawyer X’ Nicola Gobbo, who he did not know was informing Victoria Police at the time.

His barrister Julie Condon KC said Mokbel had provided a $500,000 property in Yallambie as surety to secure his release on bail, to which Justice Jane Dixon asked whether he could provide more equity.

She said she would seek advice on that during the lunch break.

Condon said Mokbel would agree to a number of “stringent bail” conditions including a GPS monitoring device, and would be living at a stable residence in Viewbank, northeast of Melbourne.

Mokbel has strong ties to the jurisdiction due to a “supportive family” and “long-term de-facto relationship”, Condon said.

She detailed seven reasons Mokbel met exceptional circumstances to be granted appeal bail, including the timing of his appeal, his poor health and circumstances in custody.

Condon said his non-parole period has Mokbel slated for release by 2031, and his appeal hearing is expected to be heard by the end of this year.

“It is not an insignificant matter that the court is hearing an application whereby the applicant … will have served a substantial portion of his non-parole state sentence before his appeal is heard,” she said.

She detailed to the court a damning pre-appeal judgment by NSW judge Elizabeth Fullerton, which was delivered in December.

The ruling was critical over Gobbo’s role as an informer while acting as Mokbel’s lawyer and slammed Victoria Police over its use of her as an informer.

Justice Fullerton found police had perverted the course of justice in a “joint criminal enterprise” with Gobbo to have Mokbel charged, and criticised police’s failure to obtain legal advice before she was registered as an informer.

“The very use of a practising criminal barrister as a registered informer by Victoria Police was unprecedented,” Condon said, reading the judge’s findings.

Gobbo, a registered police informer from 2005 to 2009, was acting as Mokbel’s lawyer for four years before he fled to Greece in 2006.

He has been in custody since he was arrested in Greece in June 2007 and charged with several drug trafficking offences.

She continued to advise him when he was extradited in 2008, and he did not find out about her status as an informer until the High Court lifted gag orders in 2018.

The hearing before Justices Karin Emerton, Robert Osborn and Jane Dixon continues.