Drug kingpin Tony Mokbel wants to taste freedom for the first time in 18 years

But David Glynn, for the Office of Public Prosecutions, raised concerns about how a person could be tracked via the signal to their monitoring device if they were to remove it, or escape underground beyond the range of phone towers.

Laura Windsor, operations manager at GPS company Allied Universal, told the court the company currently tracks 19 Victorians on bail and 142 people across Australia.

Windsor agreed that if a person were to go underground, their coverage would be lost, with staff called on to attempt to contact the bailed person.

Mokbel’s barrister, Julie Condon, KC, relied on nine factors in seeking bail for Mokbel, including his poor health, the strength of his appeal case and his circumstances in custody.

Condon also revealed Mokbel was in a long-term relationship and had family who lived locally, giving him strong ties to the community.

The court heard Mokbel would submit to GPS monitoring via an ankle bracelet and provide a surety as conditions of bail.

He was handed a 30-year prison sentence, with a non-parole of 22 years, in 2012 after pleading guilty to masterminding an elaborate drug syndicate.

Mokbel has applied to have his entire conviction quashed because of the Lawyer X scandal, after the discovery that his barrister, Nicola Gobbo, was also working as a double agent for police.

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In November last year, a judge found that police took part in a “joint criminal enterprise” to pervert the course of justice when they used Gobbo to help bring down Mokbel.

Gobbo had helped convince a drug cook to plead guilty and turn supergrass against Mokbel.

It was the strongest indication yet that Mokbel could succeed in having his convictions overturned, spurring his application for bail as he awaits a final decision on the appeal.

Condon told the court that Gobbo’s role in her client’s case was unlike any of the other Lawyer X cases and it was “unthinkable” that Mokbel would not have fought his drugs charges had he known about her betrayal.

Mokbel, wearing a striped tie and black suit, sat behind glass in the court, surrounded by four specialist security officers and behind two rows of lawyers.

After the lunch break, Mokbel got a visit and a hand-shake from a man in a jumper branded with a funeral home service well-known for burying clients from the underworld, most recently Sam “The Punisher” Abdulrahim.

In a last-minute twist to the ongoing and complicated legal proceedings, Mokbel’s long-time lawyer Sarah Tricarico had her practising certificate cancelled last month by the Legal Services Board after she was charged with attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Last week, Tricarico was granted a stay on her suspension to allow her to continue acting for Mokbel, under supervision, so his long-running bail and appeal hearings were not derailed.

Tricarico plans to fight the charges and have her practising certificate reinstated.

Mokbel is currently eligible for parole in June 2031.

Mokbel was all smiles as he left the court on Tuesday, stopping to shake hands, and speak with, half a dozen friends and family.

Two of those men left court in an orange Lamborghini.