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 faced the County Court in Melbourne today after pleading guilty to obtaining property by deception from MGI Golf while he was national sales manager.

He stole $140,717.70 from the family-run golfing wholesaler between August 2018 and June 2019 by making 71 fraudulent transactions with its customers.

DiPierdomenico gave the customers MGI invoices containing his PayPal or bank account details, and received about $119,000 into his personal accounts.

MGI chief executive Carrie Edwards-Britt said the business was started by her father and DiPierdomenico had been entrusted with one of the few senior roles not filled by family.

She had uncovered the fraud herself while analysing reports on the company’s finances and then reported it to police.

“When Dylan admitted to us that he had been stealing from MGI, it hurt our family and company,” she told the court.

“I was in damage control with our customers … who had been caught in Dylan’s web of lies and deceit.”

She said the company was stable and profitable at the time of the offending so it luckily did not “ruin” the family business.

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. 

She called for DiPierdomenico to be jailed, and asked for him to repay the amount he had stolen from the business.

DiPierdomenico took to the stand and apologised to Edwards-Britt and her family for the offending.

“They’re a wonderful family, they gave me a great opportunity and I betrayed their trust,” he told the court.

He said he’d stolen from the business after succumbing to a gambling addiction, a crutch for him to deal with pressures and anxiety amidst family issues and an ADHD diagnosis.

DiPierdomenico said he intended to pay back the money he had stolen as soon as he could.

Under questioning from Judge Richard Maidment, he revealed he did not disclose the offending to his next employer.

“You knew perfectly well that you had committed those offences but chose not to disclose them to your new employer?” the judge asked DiPierdomenico.

“I don’t know why I didn’t disclose it at the time,” he replied.

Prosecutor Francesca Holmes asked the judge to hand DiPierdomenico a term of imprisonment in combination with a community work order.

However, his barrister Hayden Rattray asked for his client to avoid jail time and instead be handed a community corrections order of five years.

Rattray said DiPierdomenico had been subjected to years of delay in the case, as the offending began in 2018, and pointed to media attention having a significant impact on him.

“The reality is that his face has been blasted over the pages of the paper and in media reports for many, many months now.”

DiPierdomenico, who is on bail, will return to the court to be sentenced on January 30.