AFL legend Robert ‘Dipper’ DiPierdomenico played down his son’s $140,000 fraud by saying ‘it was just money’, the victim has claimed.
Dylan DiPierdomenico, 41, pleaded guilty at the Melbourne County Court on Monday to obtaining property by deception.
DiPierdomenico, whose father Robert was a five-time premiership player for the Hawthorn Hawks, rinsed $140,716 from his former employer Protege Sport Pty Ltd.
The court heard DiPierdomenico was national sales manager when he sold golf gear including buggies to multiple customers between August 2018 and June 2019.
However, DiPierdomenico, who also sold golf carts, pocketed the cash to cover his debilitating gambling addiction, the court was told.
Protege Sports, which traded as MGI Golf Pty Ltd at Nunawading in Melbourne’s east, sold exclusively to golf club pro shops and DiPierdomenico’s unwitting customers were dupes in his protracted fraud.
The prosecution submitted DiPierdomenico used his ‘position of trust’ and fake invoices to trick customers into transferring cash into a bogus PayPal account.
DiPierdomenico, who was on $103,000-a-year, also sold the stolen golf gear at heavily discounted prices to induce bogus transactions.
Dylan DiPierdomenico, 41, (left, with his famous father Robert) pleaded guilty at the Melbourne County Court on Monday to a rolled-up obtain by deception charge
Dylan’s dad Robert DiPierdomenico is a former AFL hardman midfielder who won five premierships playing for the Hawthorn Hawks in the VFL/AFL between 1975 and 1991
DiPierdomenico’s racket unraveled after now-MGI Golf Pty Ltd chief executive Carrie Edwards-Britt discovered ‘anomalies’ which she ‘considered suspicious’.
Ms Carrie Edwards-Britt claimed DiPierdomenico’s father told a mutual friend ‘he didn’t understand why we were so upset because it was just money, and his son had made us a lot of money’.
‘Dylan did not make us any money. He did not meet his sales targets while he worked for us,’ she said.
Ms Carrie Edwards-Britt questioned DiPierdomenico who admitted he stole $10,000 to fund a gambling addiction and said he was worried his wife would take the kids and leave him.
Ms Carrie Edwards-Britt didn’t accept DiPierdomenico’s pleas for mercy before sacking the disgraced sales boss and reporting him to police.
Cops raided DiPierdomenico’s Vermont home before he was arrested and finally charged.
Investigators uncovered the full extent of DiPierdomenico’s theft and discovered he turned over an inflow of $77,918 and an outflow of more than $142,000 via online gambling.
Ms Carrie Edwards-Britt, who read her victim impact statement to the court, said DiPierdomenico’s ‘lies and deceit’ crushed their family orientated company.
Robert, famously known by his nickname ‘Dipper’, also won the Brownlow Medal in 1986 (pictured, Dylan, Robert and retired AFL champ Chris Judd)
Robert was known for his big moustache and also being heavily crunched by AFL legend Gary Ablett in the first quarter of the notorious 1989 Grand Final
‘Dylan took advantage of our good and trusting nature,’ she said.
‘We gave him a senior job in an industry which he had no experience in. He knew what he was doing, this was planned, calculated and vindictive.
‘It progressed as he saw he could get away with it as we trusted him. The fallout with customers was embarrassing, unprofessional and costly.
‘Our reputation as a brand within the industry was severely compromised and we had to rebuild trust with our retailers.’
DiPierdomenico, currently a sales manager for a global events company, also gave evidence on Monday, telling the court he was a changed man.
DiPierdomenico also claimed he was ‘deeply apologetic’ for ripping off his former employer.
The defence submitted media scrutiny, due to DiPierdomenico’s dad and his ‘surname’, could lessen the need for specific deterrence and in turn lead to a less harsher sentence.
Dylan’s dad Robert DiPierdomenico is a former AFL hardman midfielder who won five premierships playing for the Hawthorn Hawks in the VFL/AFL between 1975 and 1991.
Robert, famously known by his nickname ‘Dipper’, also won the Brownlow Medal in 1986.
He was known for his big moustache and also being heavily crunched by AFL legend Gary Ablett in the first quarter of the notorious 1989 Grand Final.
Robert suffered cracked ribs and a punctured lung but played out the game before being rushed to hospital with life threatening injuries.
He enjoyed a career in the media as a boundary rider for Channel 7 during AFL broadcasts and was also a regular guest on Channel 9’s The Footy Show.
His son Dylan had his bail extended to front court at a later date.
