Portland doctor Abraham Stephanson's actions have been labelled "very cynical" after another victim came forward claiming they had been defrauded by him.
Stephanson pleaded guilty in Melbourne County Court on Monday to scamming a man of $20,000 for his father's cancer treatment which was instead spent on gambling in June 2020.
In total, the former Seaport Medical Centre doctor has pleaded guilty to defrauding his victims of $812,000 to support the addiction.
More than $620,000 remains outstanding to his victims, including one who died last week.
Some of Stephanson's victims had been seeing him as their physician for a decade and were in their 80s.
The court heard Stephanson, 50, used the guise of his father's diagnosis of terminal cancer to get his victims to give him money.
Stephanson did not give any of the dishonestly obtained money to his father.
Property sold to repay victims, says lawyer
Defence lawyer Abbie Roodenburg told the court Stephanson's Portland property, which had a mortgage of more than $800,000, was sold last week for $1.57 million to repay the victims.
But Ms Roodenburg said moves by the prosecution to delay the sale resulted in a decline in the property's value.
"There's barely enough to pay victims and there will be nothing left for him," she said.
"It's important to him that each victim be repaid.
"He didn't borrow money from them with the intent to leave them out of pocket."
But the prosecution argued the court could not be satisfied he borrowed the money — some of which was put towards mortgage, tax and home loan repayments — with the intent to repay them.
"Those loans were obtained not for his father but to gamble," prosecutor Jessica Fallar said.
Judge George Georgiou said Stephanson breached the trust of his patients.
Stephanson's medical license has been suspended indefinitely and he will be sentenced at a later date.
