The Victorian Supreme Court has sentenced a solicitor to over four years behind bars for stealing more than $480,000 from a client.
Justice Rita Incerti sentenced Dean Hadjina to four years and three months’ imprisonment, with a non-parole period of two years and six months, for the theft of $482,154.20 from a woman who retained him in 2019 for a dependency claim after her husband died at work.
Hadjina had pleaded guilty to one charge of theft and 13 charges of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
At the time of the offending, the woman was in an “incredibly vulnerable” position, with Justice Incerti noting she only spoke a little English and had migrated to Australia just months before her husband’s death.
“Your offending was deliberate and sustained, spanning a period of two years and resulting in the misappropriation of close to half a million dollars. It was not the result of a momentary lapse of judgement – it was calculated and prolonged,” Justice Incerti said in her sentencing remarks.
“Your conduct is particularly serious given the extreme vulnerabilities of the victim, of which you had specific knowledge.”
Hadjina settled the woman’s dependency claim in May 2019, with the husband’s workplace agreeing to pay the sum of $644,095.44, continuing to pay the husband’s pension, and covering her reasonable legal costs.
At no time did Hadjina tell the woman what the sum was or that the settlement could be accepted or rejected. Instead, he transferred her only $500,000 in June and billed the remaining as “legal fees”, even though the total value of his legal work came to just $548.30.
Between November 2019 and February 2021, Hadjina invented fictitious Victorian Supreme Court proceedings for further compensation in order to dupe the woman out of another $338,093.80.
On three separate occasions, Hadjina took the woman into the city for purported hearings or meetings regarding the claim, and produced and sent her a number of sham documents, including false material and emails that featured the Supreme Court’s coat of arms.
Hadjina claimed she would be paid in excess of $17 million in early 2021.
The woman and her friend and translator became suspicious in May and June 2021 when the anticipated payment was not made.
After inquiring with Workcover directly and learning of the deception, they approached Hadjina to demand the truth. In reply, he claimed he was owed an apology because “as a good Christian and lawyer I do not lie”.
The Victorian Legal Services Board and Commissioner referred the matter to Victoria Police in November 2023.
Justice Incerti said Hadjina’s invention of fake legal proceedings “involved a level of deception and brazenness that significantly elevates the seriousness of your conduct”.
“In my view, this instance of offending was even more egregious than that relating to the first charge, and constitutes a profound breach of the trust and responsibility vested in you as a solicitor,” Justice Incerti added.
Justice Incerti said Hadjina would never again hold a practising certificate and be in a position to engage in the offending again.
The case: DPP v Hadjina [2025] VSC 786.
Naomi Neilson is a senior journalist with a focus on court reporting for Lawyers Weekly.
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