‘I’ve crashed the Lambo’: Trial finally starts after long delays

The owner of an iconic Hobart delicatessen has appeared in court to formally deny allegations he attempted to defraud an insurance company of $180,000 following a fiery 2019 Lamborghini crash.

Lipscombe Larder’s John Spiro Fiotakis trial over Lamborghini crash.

The owner of an iconic Hobart delicatessen has appeared in court to formally deny allegations he attempted to defraud an insurance company of $180,000 following a fiery 2019 Lamborghini crash.

Lipscombe Larder owner, John Spiro Fiotakis, has pleaded not guilty to one count of attempting by deception to acquire a financial advantage from Allianz Australia Insurance, after allegedly falsely stating he was driving the $239,000 sports car when it was written off at Seven Mile Beach.

On the first day of Mr Fiotakis’s trial in the Supreme Court in Hobart on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Ian Arendt used his opening address to allege that the 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo was actually being driven by the defendant’s then 24-year-old son, Spiro, who was not covered by the vehicle’s insurance policy due to his age.

Mr Arendt claimed that after the crash, Spiro Fiotakis immediately called his father using a mobile phone borrowed from a Pittwater Rd resident who came to render assistance.

Mobile data from a phone tower located near Wrest Point suggested John Fiotakis was in Sandy Bay when he received the call, Mr Arendt said.

Prosecutors said the defendant subsequently submitted a hand-written insurance claim stating he was driving the Lamborghini when it crashed, and that he did so in an attempt to deceive Allianz.

A 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo similar to the one owned by John Spiro Fiotakis, which crashed and caught fire.

Mr Arendt said Mr Fiotakis continued his deceptive conduct when questioned by an investigator appointed by the insurance company, which eventually rejected the claim and paid no money to the defendant.

Defence lawyer, James Crotty, used his opening address to remind the jury that mobile data records did not necessarily correlate to a given person’s location, and urged members to pay particular attention to evidence to be given by the man who loaned his phone to Mr Fiotakis’s son.

Mr Crotty also asked the jury to carefully consider evidence relating to interactions between insurance investigators and police investigators following the crash, and to question arguments put forward by the Crown about Mr Fiotakis’s supposed motivation to lie.

Steadfast Taswide Insurance Brokers employee, Amber Tucker, gave evidence that after her company first secured insurance cover for the Lamborghini, both John and Spiro Fiotakis were reminded the policy did not cover drivers under the age of 25.

Ms Tucker said the day after the crash, she received a phone call from John Fiotakis in which he claimed to have been behind the wheel when the incident happened.

“It was along the lines of ‘I’ve crashed the Lambo” … and I told him we would need a claim form,” Ms Tucker said.

Ms Tucker said she witnessed Mr Fiotakis signing the insurance claim when she collected the form from his workplace.

But under questioning from Mr Crotty, Ms Tucker conceded that an initial certificate of insurance obtained from Allianz listed Spiro Fiotakis as a nominated driver for the Lambougini, and that the document included two entries for his date of birth which were both incorrect.

Ms Tucker agreed that both dates preceded Spiro Fiotakis’s actual date of birth, and that neither date had been provided to the insurer by either Spiro or John Fiotakis.

“Would it not be reasonable for [Spiro Fiotakis] to think that he was insured to drive the Lamborghini?” Mr Crotty asked.

“Yes,” replied Ms Tucker.

The trial, before Chief Justice Chris Shanahan, continues.

Originally published as ‘I’ve crashed the Lambo’: Trial finally starts after long delays