‘What went wrong with Frank?’: The baffling crimes of former Geelong mayor Frank De Stefano
The crimes of disgraced former mayor Frank De Stefano is still a major shock to Geelong, but where exactly did he go so wrong?
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It was a crime that shocked Geelong and left much of the state with jaws on the floor.
Frank De Stefano, one of the most recognisable figures in the city at the time, was a long-serving councillor, former mayor and pillar of the community before his world came crashing down 23 years ago.
The accountant had been secretly ripping off clients and taking their hard earned cash to feed an insatiable gambling addiction at Crown Casino, where it’s estimated he blew $6.6 million across its plush Mahogany Room tables.
His thefts would total $8.6 million, siphoned off friends and associates who “not in a million years” would have guessed this hardworking and revered Italian success story was capable of such treason.
Robert Costa, from the famous Costa Group family, served alongside Mr De Stefano as a Geelong councillor in the mid-1980s and says his story is a cautionary tale about the evils of gambling addiction.
He has not spoken too or seen the man he described as “one of the pillars of Geelong” since he confessed to his crimes in 2000.
“A good way to sum it up was a seismic fall from grace,” he said.
“Frank De Stefano was one of the pillars of the community. He was a trusted advisor to a number of people and was well known and well liked all over town, so it was a hell of a shock.”
He had been awarded an Order of Australia Medal for service to ethnic communities, served as chairman of Barwon Water and was the city’s mayor from 1991-1993, but behind the social standing lurked a gambling “illness” that many still don’t understand.
Including Mr Costa.
“The staggering thing for me and my reaction was, what happened?” he said.
“What went wrong with Frank to cause him to fall prey to that degree to what I call a bloody illness, gambling.
“It clearly got a hold of him and it was a one-way trip.
“What caused that, for a bloke who had everything together?
“I’m not a psychiatrist but there has got to be a reason.”
Another former Geelong Mayor and prominent businessmen, Keith Fagg, said the news of De Stefano’s criminal deceit was “a big shock”.
He had been a hero in the Italian community, establishing the Italian Social Club and earning a Geelong and Districts Services medal for his contribution to many organisations.
“The fact that it involved at the time a very high profile person in community life was greatly disappointing, and that was where the shock component came from,” Fagg said.
“It was quite a terrible story in terms of the impact it had on his clients.
“The circumstances didn’t read well and you think that sort of thing would never happen again.
“It was one of those things where you felt terrible for the victims and their circumstances.”
Mr De Stefano served seven of his 10 year jail sentence for embezzling $8.6m from a dozen clients of his accounting firm.
One shocking case involved stealing $5m from a trust set up to manage the finances of quadriplegic Tomislav Papic, a crime Justice Murral Kellam described as “heartless and cruel” during sentencing in 2003.
The court also heard he used cash to pay school fees, improve his luxury Eastern Beach home and make donations to the Liberal Party.
Yet the lion’s share was spent on what the judge described as an addiction and obsession with gambling.
Prosecutor Michelle Williams told the court at the time she believed Mr De Stefano enjoyed the lavish attention he received as a high-roller at Crown Casino.
The extent of his “disease” still bewilders Mr Costa to this day.
“You had a dichotomy of reactions, and all understandable,” he said.
“From the extreme negative of the shocking crime and how terrible it was, to the other side for the people who knew him.
“It was the question of what has gone so wrong in Frank’s life to cause this, and what is this thing called the gambling bug?
“He was one of the last people you would have ever expected for this to happen.”
Mr De Stefano, who has three children, was released from prison in 2009 and still lives in Geelong.
He apologised for his crimes in 2010 but his downfall remains one of Geelong’s most baffling and appalling to this day.
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Originally published as ‘What went wrong with Frank?’: The baffling crimes of former Geelong mayor Frank De Stefano
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