Major update in pop star’s court case: Jury retired to consider verdict
A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of Guy Sebastian’s former manager.
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A jury has retired to consider its verdicts in the trial of Guy Sebastian’s former manager Titus
Day who is alleged to have embezzled over $600,000 from his former client.
For the last month, Mr Day has stood trial in the NSW District Court in Sydney where he has
battled allegations that he stole from his former friend and the one-time Australian Idol
winner.
He has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of embezzlement as a clerk or servant.
It’s alleged that Mr Day failed to remit over $620,000 in performance fees and royalties to Mr
Sebastian that were collected by his 6 Degrees talent agency.
It is alleged he embezzled performance fees, including $187,000 for supporting Taylor Swift
on her 2013 tour of Australia, as well as for private weddings, a Big Bash cricket game and
corporate events.
He has also pleaded not guilty to one count of dishonestly obtaining a financial advantage by
deception, relating to allegations he deceived the liquidator after his company was placed
into liquidation.
During his closing address to the jury, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC said Mr Day had
fabricated invoices to deceive Mr Sebastian.
“The fact that he went to the trouble to create these invoices that were not accurate shows
that he knew that he had not honestly accounted to Mr Sebastian for the relevant
transactions at the time – that he fraudulently embezzled the money,” Mr Hatfield told the
court.
“And that was the reason why he would have done what he did in creating these documents
to account for the transactions retrospectively.”
Mr Day, through his defence, has claimed that he failed to remit some of the money to Mr
Sebastian because of an accounting error and a mistaken belief that the income related to
another client.
He has further claimed he believed he was entitled to hold onto other funds because of
unpaid commissions and that he used other money to invest in shares for Mr Sebastian.
“Whenever Mr Day held onto money that had come into the 6 Degrees account, he did it
believing he was entitled to do so,” Mr Day’s barrister Thomas Woods told the jury in his
closing address.
“He is not guilty of any offence of embezzlement.”
The court has been told that Mr Day says some accounting errors were the result of family
difficulties at the time which resulted in his attention being elsewhere
The trial concluded on Wednesday at the conclusion of closing arguments from Mr Day’s
defence.
Following Judge Alister Abadee’s summing up on Friday, the jury retired to consider its
verdicts on the 35 counts.
Originally published as Major update in pop star’s court case: Jury retired to consider verdict
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