A County Court judge has described a Ballarat real estate agent who embezzled nearly $800,000 from clients as a man of "otherwise unblemished character".

Richard Hayden was ordered to serve one year in prison after being sentenced in Melbourne today.

Hayden, 56, was the director of family-owned Hayden Real Estate, which was established by his grandfather 1929.

The Ballarat man was charged with criminal offences in 2022 after a lengthy investigation.

Earlier this month, Hayden pleaded guilty to two rolled-up charges of allowing deficiencies in real estate trust accounts and one charge of wrongful conversion of business money to personal accounts.

The court previously heard 76 clients made claims to the Victorian Property Fund (VPF) after failing to receive their deposit payments from Hayden Real Estate in 2018 and 2019.

Of the 76 client claims for missing payments made to the VPF, Hayden paid back 37 claimants over $400,000.

The remainder of the claims were paid by the VPF to the tune of $309,000.

'Unresolved grief and shame'

In sentencing, Judge Marcus Dempsey drew particular attention to Hayden's grief, anxiety, and determination to provide his dying wife with comfort before she passed.

The misappropriated funds were spent on travel, hotel, food, and entertainment before her death in 2019.

"You hoped to rectify [the money] before anyone would notice … but the offending spiralled out of control," Judge Dempsey said.

In 2017, Hayden's brother died suddenly in a car crash, the same year his wife's breast cancer came back in an inoperable way.

"It's hard to conceive of a man who has lost more than you," noted Judge Dempsey.

The court heard this morning of Hayden's guilt and continuingly poor mental health.

He was supported in court by his children. 

The judge took into account Hayden's continued expression of remorse, his early plea of guilty, the fact that prison time would be "particularly onerous" on him, his part-time work, and his strong prospects of rehabilitation. 

"[The clients] suffered tremendous anguish and cruel uncertainty when the funds were misappropriated," Judge Dempsey said.

"It's a sad fact of your offending, the trust many had in you … was so terribly displaced as you put your own needs, and that of your family, above all else.

Hayden was sentenced to serve one year in prison and a two-year community corrections order. 

He will be required to serve 200 hours of unpaid community work.

He would have faced a four-year prison sentence if he had not pleaded guilty.