Anthony Dieni ordered to pay back $450,000

A drug counsellor who helped clients cheat urine tests has been ordered to pay back $450,000 he swindled.

Anthony Dieni.

A corrupt drug and alcohol counsellor has been ordered to pay back almost half a million dollars he swindled in government funds.

Anthony Dieni was last year sentenced to a maximum 14-years in jail for helping rehabilitation patients cheat urine tests in exchange for peddling drugs for him.

For his activities undermining the justice system, the County Court has also now ordered him to repay $448,805.76 as part of a “pecuniary penalty order’’.

The massive penalty relates to a charge of false accounting.

The court heard during his plea hearing on six counts of attempting to pervert the course of justice, as well as drug trafficking, false accounting and guns offences, that Dieni had used some of the misappropriated funds to pay for a holiday for himself and his wife.

Anthony Dieni has been ordered to repay almost $450,000.

Dieni was working as a co-ordinator at the now defunct St Paul’s Prevention Rehabilitation in Melbourne’s north during his offending from December 2016 to September 2017.

Police charged Dieni following an anti-corruption probe by IBAC, codenamed Operation Murano, which focused on allegations Dieni deliberately misled the court in bail applications and sentencing hearings.

He made “empty promises” to inform authorities of any breaches to secure bail for drug-addicted clients.

But instead he encouraged them to flout conditions and helped them avoid detection.

The operation resulted in 20 people being charged with a range of offences.

Dieni, 72, was awarded an OAM for his service in 1998, before his downfall.

County Court judge Patricia Riddell said in sentencing Dieni his actions had undermined the judicial system.

“Instead of working with the system, you were a mole, undercutting it from within,” Judge Riddell said.

“You used your position to manipulate, mislead and undermine court processes and outcomes; and to receive illicit drugs from clients and their associates.

“It was a monumental betrayal of your role.”