A former AFL star exploited the trust and goodwill of small-town families to defraud them of tens of thousands of dollars with the promise of swimming pools that never eventuated.
Ex-Carlton and Port Adelaide footballer Nick Stevens, 46, was on Monday jailed for nine months and handed a two-year community corrections order after being found guilty by a jury on 12 charges of obtaining a financial advantage by deception and one of using a false document.
He was acquitted of one charge.
Stevens stole about $158,000 from six families in regional areas through his pool business in 2017.
While he installed six legally compliant pools under the supervision of a registered builder, he then went out on his own without proper licence, registration, permits or insurance.
He took money from the families, but left some with non-compliant pools and others with unfilled holes in their yards.
At no point during the period of offending was Stevens registered as a builder and no permit applications for those projects were lodged with Mildura Council.
Despite the council issuing stop-work orders at multiple homes, he continued to take deposits and money from other families with the promise he would deliver and install legally compliant swimming pools.
"You did this even when you knew the consequences of your false representations was for the council to arrive and stop the work," Victorian County Court Judge Fiona Todd said on Monday.
He also sent a fake receipt to a pool company for it to deliver a pool shell that had not been paid for.
Many of his victims were retirees or close to retirement and could not afford to make amends, with one family taking out a loan to fund the work he never did, the judge said.
"Some despaired when they found themselves having to explain the absence of a long-promised pool to small children during a hot Christmas," she said.
He gave inquiring customers false assurances when they asked to see paperwork.
"You exploited the kind of small city trust that binds a regional community," the judge said.
Judge Todd was troubled by the eight-year delay from when Stevens was first interviewed in 2018 to his sentence on Monday, which was a significant mitigatory feature in her sentence.
"The delay in this case was not caused by you, but imposed by a series of ... failings, causing you to labour under a cloud," she said.
But she said there was need for general deterrence for those who wanted to exploit trusting people.
"What you did had a corrosive effect on the goodwill and trust that does so much good in a community," she said.
The judge considered a character reference from former Carlton chief executive Michael Malouf as well as the support from his family when she made her decision.
Stevens, who played 231 games in the AFL until retiring in 2009 because of injury, pleaded not guilty to the 13 charges and took the matter to trial.
Three of his trials were discharged before a fourth jury reached its verdict in March.
He has indicated he will compensate some of his victims.
As part of his community order, the ex-footballer must perform 120 hours of unpaid community work.
He has spent 78 days in pre-sentence detention.
