Frank De Stefano

Australian criminal

Frank De Stefano (born 1948) was mayor and councillor of Geelong, Victoria from 1983 to 1993. In 1988 De Stefano was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his services to migrant communities. De Stefano resigned from the Order on 2 October 2008. In 2003 he was imprisoned for ten years on twelve theft charges totalling A$8,606,101.47.

De Stefano gave evidence on four occasions as a witness in the committal and trials of law clerk Julian Michael Clarke in the murder of Keith William Allan. The first occasion was the committal of Clarke at the Melbourne Magistrates Court before Magistrate Barbara Cottrell on 3 July 2003. The other occasions were during Clarke's three trials in the Supreme Court of Victoria. These were at the first trial before Justice Philip Cummins on 1 March 2004, the second trial before Justice David Byrne on 15 May 2006, and the third trial before Justice John Coldrey on 2 April 2007. Clarke was one of three persons convicted for murdering Allan at the first and third trials. The verdict at the first trial was annulled by the Victorian Court of Appeal, owing to a legal technicality. The second trial was aborted due to a hung jury. Clarke and the other accused were again found guilty at the third trial. Appeals subsequent to this were all unsuccessful. Allan was murdered in May 2000, and his body has never been found. De Stefano told the jury during cross examination at each trial that he was borrowing large sums of money from Clarke to feed his own gambling addiction, and had met Clarke when frequenting the Crown Casino high rollers room. He said all loans from Clarke were repaid within 24 hours. David Pearson, forensic accountant with the Victoria Police Major Fraud Group, told the jury that De Stefano was laundering money via Clarke using a series of round robin financial transactions channelled through Allan's trust account totalling $3.75 million. These funds were eventually converted into cheques payable to Crown Casino. Much of the money laundered had been replaced, but $140,000 lent to De Stefano was still outstanding.

As of March 2022, there is still a street named after him in North Geelong. This is a rare honour for a living convicted criminal.

It was reported in the Geelong Advertiser on 23 June 2009 that De Stefano would serve out the remainder of his sentence in home detention. De Stefano will be released from prison and tagged electronically on 13 July, six months earlier than the minimum term of seven years he was sentenced to. The Adult Parole Board deemed De Stefano to be a 'suitable candidate' in a hearing held during the third week of June 2009. The Parole Board disclosed that De Stefano, who was bankrupted whilst in jail, would not serve his home detention in Geelong.