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A senior detective is accused of staging faux interviews in Docklands police station and accepting flights, cash and hotel stays as bribes to chase debts and settle civil disputes for associates.
Wayne Steven Dean, 66, resigned from Victoria Police in 2024 following a prolonged probe by the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) called Operation Bredbo.
Dean appeared in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court this week alongside a building company boss, a travel agent and a debt collector, all charged over the alleged bribery and blackmail ring.
Dean faces 35 charges including misconduct in public office, bribery of a public official, blackmail and attempting to pervert the course of justice.
The former police officer of 37 years is alleged to have taken bribes from his co-accused in return for misusing information, influencing others and committing blackmail over four years.
In charge sheets released by the court on Thursday, the anti-corruption commission alleges Dean used Docklands police station to question people who weren’t under police investigation and lead them to believe they might be charged.
He allegedly did so to recover a civil debt for an associate, made unwarranted demands with menace for another co-accused, took sensitive police information and gave it to others and caused false information to be provided to a court.
In return, IBAC alleges Dean received money, two return flights to Thailand, hotel accommodation, a mobile phone and access to a driver.
Builder Alex Dimopoulous, 58, has been charged with four counts of bribery over allegations he gave Dean money, paid for the then detective to stay at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne and the Four Seasons Hotel in Sydney, the driver and a mobile phone.
Suburban travel agent Cheng ‘Christine’ Zhang, 64, faces three charges of bribing a public official over the international flights and accommodation at Sandpiper Motel Apollo Bay.
Basilios ‘Bill’ Meletsis, a 58-year-old debt collector, has been charged with six counts of bribery and blackmail over allegations he paid Dean to make unwarranted demands on his behalf.
Magistrate Vincenzo Caltabiano bailed all four accused to return to court in April.
The charges come four years after Dean was first arrested in February 2022, 10 days after he had been captured by surveillance devices meeting with Meletsis near the Victoria Police headquarters in West Melbourne.
IBAC held a six-day public hearing into Dean’s conduct in May 2022, and it was told that the surveillance captured a meeting where Meletsis offered Dean $3000 to obtain CCTV footage from a Thomastown storage facility after a unit containing illegally stored tobacco was burgled.
IBAC investigators allegedly uncovered $18,000 in a locked safe, and another $1300 in a desk, when they raided Dean’s home in February 2022, the hearing was told.
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