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• Sarah-Jane Collins
• June 26, 2008 - 3:44PM

Football great David Dench has been found guilty of playing a major role in a multi-million-dollar fraud at Victoria University.

Dench was today convicted of nine counts of obtaining property by deception and two counts of aiding and abetting the receipt of secret commissions.

A jury returned the guilty verdict in the County Court this afternoon following four days of deliberation.

A former North Melbourne captain who played 275 games between 1969 and 1984, Dench pleaded not guilty in the County Court last month to 23 counts of obtaining property by deception, two of aiding and abetting the receipt of secret commissions and six of furnishing false information.

The prosecution said that through the awarding of false contracts and the creation of inflated quotes and invoices Dench, in concert with his former employer and several university employees stole millions.

During the seven week trial jurors heard evidence from former university employees and Dench's former employer John Capellin, all of whom have already been dealt with by the courts for their role in the scam.

Their testimony formed the basis of the case against Dench, and prosecutor Bruce Walmsley, SC, said that it was inconceivable that Dench did not know about the scam.

"[The scam] was wink wink, nudge nudge,'' he told the jury. "It's not the sort of thing that you openly discuss.''

But he said that the re-carpeting of the Greenvale Football Club _ which was paid for by Victoria University after FMG, the company Dench worked for, filed a false invoice - a club that Dench is associated with, was clear evidence of his involvement.

"Mr Dench's hand-prints are all over the carpet of the Greenvale Football Club... (He must have known) that the university was defrauded,'' Mr Walmsley said.

But Shaun Ginsbourg, for Dench, argued that his client had been kept in the dark by Capellin, and had simply been doing his job, not taking part in the massive fraud.

He said the men who had testified against Dench had cut deals with the prosecution guaranteeing them shorter sentences if they testified.

"I urged you all in my opening address that there were witnesses in this case who weren't here to help you, they were here to help themselves," he told the jury.

He said that Dench's former boss, Capellin, was the true mastermind of the fraud.

"The point is that Mr Capellin, not Mr Dench perpetrated these invoices and Mr Dench knew nothing about these invoices," he said.

But the jury disagreed. After a four day deliberation, and one night locked up in a motel away from their families they found Dench guilty of playing a part in the fraud, taking approximately $75,000 out of the university's pocket.

He was remanded into custody and will appear again before Judge Tim Wood for a pre-sentence hearing on July 7th.