Dean Pipicelli fronts court after defrauding mates and his boss

A disgraced former Bass Coast footy coach ripped off his mates and employer of more than $700k using forged documents to feed his gambling addiction.

Dean Pipicelli conned his football mates and employer out of more than $700,000 which he used to fund his gambling addiction.

A disgraced former footy coach who ripped off his mates and elderly boss out of more than $700,000 to fund his gambling addiction has been jailed.

Dean Patrick Pipicelli, 56, of Corinella, forged documents and made false representations of investment opportunities to obtain money from his employer Gippsland Timber and five players from the Kilcunda Bass Football Club and Stony Creek Football Club between January 2019 and April 2020.

Pipicelli was sentenced to 30 months’ jail on Thursday after earlier pleading guilty to eight charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception and one of theft.

“You preyed upon and wantonly deceived your business partner and her husband and five other victims into entrusting you more than $700,000 of their own money, leaving them out of pocket of $578,033,” Judge Richard Maidment said.

He said Pipicelli’s offending began in January 2019 when he conned Vera Maschette, fellow director at Gippsland Timber, into paying him $7400 being 50 percent cost for the purchase of a second-hand forklift.

Dean Pipicelli conned his victims into giving him money to be invested into buying and selling of timber.

He obtained further amounts of $93,081 in April 2019 from the company by claiming he had a special order for timber from SML Constructions, and $260,152 for the purchase of two blocks of land at Coronet Bay in November and December 2019.

His next victim was Darcy Atkins, who he met in December 2018 through the Stony Creek Football Club where Pipicelli was the assistant coach and Mr Atkins was a player.

He told Mr Atkins, who deposited $123,400, that the money he lent would be used to purchase timber and the loan amount plus profits from timber sales would periodically be repaid.

Pipicelli managed to repay $91,000 through installments.

He also obtained $50,000 from close friend James Mahood and $28,000 from Daniel Hughes-Malkoun, who Pipicelli recruited to play for the Kilcunda Bass Football Club, on the pretext of buying timber.

His last victim was another Kilcunda footy player, Justin Marriott, who paid Pipicelli $142,000 between March and April 2020.

Disgraced footy coach Dean Pipicelli blew the more than $700,000 he fraudulently obtained from mates and his employer on gambling.

Vera Maschette and her husband Wayne reported him to police in March 2020 and two months later, Pipicelli sent her a text saying “I am so sorry about everything”.

“I got caught up in gambling really badly, and I spent all your money and lied about it. I know you know all the invoices are coming from my account as I am trying to pay it all back. My dad is going to help me get all the money back ASAP.

“Please give me a chance to pay the money back quickly. I know I let you and Wayne down terribly.”

Judge Maidment said Pipicelli has been shunned by family, friends and the community and had been living at the Waratah Bay Caravan Park for the past few years.

‘You had ample opportunity to reflect on the nature and extent of your criminal conduct yet you persisted in the face of full understanding of what you were doing and from whom you were obtaining the gains.

“You continued to present to your victims in a manner that convinced them to trust you.”

Pipicelli will have to serve 16 months before he is eligible for parole.