The Hall of Fame inductee's stellar football career and clean record were not enough to spare him time behind bars after a judge said he had shown no remorse. Dench, 56, was brought into a long-running scam at Victoria University by his employer, John Mario Cappellin, in 1999.
The County Court heard corrupt university insiders rubber-stamped invoices for Cappellin's maintenance company, which included work never done or done at inflated prices. Dench's lawyer Bernie Balmer said outside court his client had paid a heavy price for his relationship with Cappellin and had netted a "ridiculously small" share of less than $5500. The North Melbourne great was found guilty by a jury last month of nine counts of obtaining property by deception and two of aiding and abetting the receipt of a secret commission, which related to between $60,000 and $75,000.
Judge Tim Wood said though Dench's role was small it did "constitute a cog in the machine" to defraud the institution. "Your fraud was a sophisticated one, involving elaborate measures of concealment, vast amounts of documents . . . "It was an inherently difficult crime to detect and required vast resources to unearth it," he said. Judge Wood acknowledged testimonials by former teammate Wayne Schimmelbusch and coach John Kennedy, who painted Dench as a role model.
"You have led a blameless life in terms of the criminal law, were a contributor to society in a positive sense, a devout and supportive family man and achieved an illustrious football status," he told Dench. But Judge Wood noted Dench had denied guilt in the face of strong evidence, which included work carried out at Dench's home billed to the university. Mr Balmer said his client was holding up well and would not appeal against his sentence.
"He's a fellow who's used to pressure, but he worries about family and friends and the shame that it brought them as well as himself," he said. "It's a heavy price to pay.
"He just wants to get the next 3 1/2 months out of the road, settle with the university and get on with life."
Mr Balmer said Dench regretted crossing paths with Cappellin.
"You meet people in your life who just drag you down using your reputation," he said.
"That's regrettable. He should perhaps have been a titchy bit smarter about that."
Mr Balmer said Dench had hoped for a suspended sentence but understood the penalty. "You've got to send a message to others -- regrettably, it's a fellow that this town's known or loved for a long, long time," Mr Balmer said.
Judge Wood suspended a further 10 months of Dench's sentence for two years.
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