Vic drug counsellor traded lies for drugs

Anthony Dieni admitted lying on oath in the Magistrates, County and Supreme courts.

A Melbourne drug and alcohol counsellor helped addicts cover up their continued use on bail, while trading his shifty behaviour for drugs.

Anthony Dieni, 72, gave clients other people's urine to pass drug tests and lied to courts about them attending appointments so he could buy drugs, including for his grandson.

Dieni had been a counsellor at St Paul's drug rehab for 39 years when Victoria's anti-corruption watchdog IBAC began investigating him.

In one case, he told a client he was good at "using different language" to avoid being caught - describing cocaine as "Pepsi cola" and discussing "soil quality".

He arranged for one client to take drug tests privately so she could bring urine from another woman to pass off as her own.

Dieni asked a receptionist at a medical centre to give him "a little container with some of your liquid" for the woman.

That woman was using OxyContin, so he arranged for the doctor to provide his client with a prescription for Panadeine Forte to explain the opiates in her system.

He helped other clients pass tests by telling them when they'd be tested.

Dieni told another client he wouldn't bother drug testing him, because he'd tell the court medication that he was on would return a positive reading for methamphetamine.

"He's a c*** of a magistrate - he won't know if you're using ice or dextroamphetamine," he told the client.

Dieni pleaded guilty to six charges of attempting to pervert the course of justice, drug trafficking and possession of a shotgun and handgun found loaded at his home.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of false accounting, over $448,000 in payments of undocumented entitlements used to pay for his mortgage and other bills.

His barrister Julian McMahon SC said Dieni, who was awarded an Order of Australia for his rehabilitation work in 1997, was a "poorly educated lone ranger".

He lost years of his own life to addiction before joining St Paul's and said he was helping wean his grandson off drugs, and gave him small amounts to control him.

The pre-sentence hearing has been adjourned until June 23, so Dieni can go through a range of medical tests, including cognitive and dementia testing.

County Court Judge Patricia Riddell said she also wanted to know why Dieni did what he did.

"This is a man ... of low education, who developed serious addiction, recovered with the help of his family, went on to help others and could have been a great success story," she said.

"But we've got a crash worthy of Icarus in the late part of his life - why?"

Dieni remains on bail.

Australian Associated Press