Cop charged after admitting to cash from debt collector
A former police detective has been charged after admitting to accepting cash from a debt collector.
Victoria’s corruption watchdog announced on Friday it had charged former detective sergeant Wayne Dean, 66, and three others with 48 offences.
The Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission investigated allegations that 37-year police veteran Basilios (Bill) Meletsis used police resources to help him settle private debt disputes from 2018 to 2022.
The detective told the commission he brought the debtors to Melbourne Western Police Station for “mediation” and threatened them with criminal charges if they did not pay.
Mr Dean denied that Mr Meletsis had paid him for work, much of which he viewed as “investigations”.
But he admitted to taking money temporarily when they met socially, for example to buy a bottle of wine.
“I accepted money from Mr. Meletsis several times,” he said in May 2022 during public hearings into the Operation Bredbo investigation.
“I’d say six or seven times… no more than $200.”
Mr Meletsis and Mr Dean have a long history after first meeting on the Carlton restaurant scene in the mid-1990s.
Mr. Meletsis initially refused to pay the detective for a private examination but later recanted his statement, citing confusion resulting from memory loss.
“I said I didn’t give Wayne money (but) I gave him small sums of money and he helped me with some work,” Mr Meletsis told the commission.
A Chinese immigration agent launched the investigation when he complained that he had paid Mr. Dean and Mr. Meletsis $11,000 to recover a significant portion of what he owed to one of his clients.
He said his client’s money was never recovered.
During a raid, IBAC investigators found $18,000 in a safe belonging to Mr. Dean and $1,300 in cash he described as personal savings at his workplace.
Dean, who was also questioned about his relationship with underworld kingpin Mick Gatto, was suspended by Victoria Police and later resigned.
He faces 17 counts of misconduct in public office, 6 counts of blackmail, 10 counts of bribery and one count each of attempting to pervert the course of justice and providing audiovisual recording.
A 58-year-old man was charged with four counts of bribery and two counts of blackmail.
Police also charged a 64-year-old woman with three counts of bribery and a second man, 58, with four counts of bribery.
All four defendants are expected to appear in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on February 5.
