Former AFL star to contest swimming pool scam allegations
A former Carlton vice-captain is set to deny he ripped people off through a Mildura swimming pool installation service.
Police & Courts
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Former AFL midfielder Nick Stevens is set to contest charges he is facing over an alleged $130,000 swimming pool fraud.
Stevens, 40, is accused of dishonestly accepting five $3300 deposits for pools to be installed in Mildura.
The once Blues’ vice-captain then allegedly later accepted further payments of between $23,306.25 and $30,483.75.
The alleged offending spanned between June and November 2017.
Charge sheets allege Stevens accepted money “on the pretence of installing a functioning swimming pool” but “did not use the money for the purpose which they were provided”.
He has been charged with five counts of dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception.
He is also charged with making and using a false document in which he allegedly presented as “genuine” to Leisure Pools in an “act to his prejudice in that it released a pool for delivery without receiving payment”.
The case returned to Mildura Magistrates Court on Tuesday where it was revealed 10 complainants will be called to give evidence at a two-day contested hearing in February.
The court heard they would likely be asked about text messages and conversations they had with Stevens in relation to the proposed pool installation.
Stevens, who played 231 footy games — 127 for Port Adelaide and 104 for Carlton — from 1998 to 2009, did not have to appear for the brief hearing.
In 2017, he moved to the Mildura area after the Red Cliffs Football Netball Club offered him a senior coaching role, before starting up his own excavation company.
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