Disgraced Lib chief to go free
DISGRACED former Liberal state president Damien Mantach is expected to walk out of Marngoneet Correctional Centre this week.
The former Bellarine-based party president was sentenced to five years in jail in July 2016 with a 2½-year non-parole period after pleading guilty to stealing $1.55 million from the Liberal Party when he was their state director.
Having already served time following his 2015 arrest, Mr Mantach was due to walk free this week.
The now 44-year-old embezzled funds from his party by creating false invoices for mailing and marketing campaigns, eventually making a full confession after the overspending was discovered.
The money was spent on an $81,000 luxury car, shares and buying a $611,000 cafe for his wife in Queenscliff.
Mr Mantach had signalled he committed the crimes amid a collapsing marriage, debt, depression and alcohol and gambling issues.
“Your wife seemed distant and you felt you were a failure as a husband and father, and that there was nothing you could do to make your wife happy,” County Court Judge Liz Gaynor said during his 2016 sentencing.
“At the end of the day, however, Mr Mantach, this was protracted, deceitful, deliberate and planned offending.
“It involved a grave breach of trust inherent in your responsible position which also allowed you to camouflage your conduct.
“Your admissions, from the first, exceeded the extent of your dishonesty as it was then known.
“Your readiness to confess the whole and provide investigators with the necessary material documentation was quite singular.”