Guy Sebastian to testify in court against ex-manager Titus Day in embezzlement trial

Guy Sebastian is expected to take the stand in a Sydney court in the coming days as his former manager battles allegations he embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from the Aussie pop star.

Titus Emanuel Day is standing trial in the NSW District Court, where he has denied that he embezzled hundreds of thousands in royalties and performance fees owed to the superstar musician.

On day one of Mr Day’s trial on Thursday, Crown prosecutor Brett Hatfield SC told the jury that the inaugural Australian Idol winner had an arrangement with Mr Day and his company, 6 Degrees, to manage his career and affairs.

Mr Hatfield told the court that Mr Sebastian placed a “significant trust” in his manager and that he “abused” that by embezzling his money.

“Through his role as Mr Sebastian’s manager, and his capacity of collecting his money on behalf of Mr Sebastian, the accused is alleged to have embezzled Mr Sebastian’s money and he’s done that by collecting Mr Sebastian’s money and failing to remit it in accordance with his agreement,” Mr Hatfield said.

Mr Day has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of embezzlement as a clerk or servant and one count of attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception.

Mr Sebastian is expected to be called to give evidence in the coming days.

The court was told on Thursday afternoon that Mr Sebastian was previously managed by the 22 Management agency, where he first worked with Mr Day.

He then agreed to join Mr Day’s 6 Degrees company as a marquee client when Mr Day broke away and formed his own company in 2009.

The court heard that their relationship began to deteriorate over time after he found what he alleged were irregularities in his financial records.

The court heard that Mr Day worked on a commission of 20 per cent of Mr Sebastian’s income after costs.

It’s alleged by the Crown that Mr Day failed to remit performance fees and royalties which were collected on Mr Sebastian’s behalf.

The court was told that one of the charges related to an allegation that Mr Day failed to remit $187,000 to Mr Sebastian for performance fees as a support act for Taylor Swift on her 2013 tour of Australia.

The court was told that in 2018, Mr Sebastian filed proceedings in the Federal Court, which prompted Mr Day and 6 Degrees to file a counterclaim.

“Mr Sebastian will tell you that this agreement reposed significant trust in the accused and the Crown case is that the accused abused this trust by dishonestly embezzling Mr Sebastian’s money,” Mr Hatfield said.

The trial before Judge Alister Abadee will continue with Mr Hatfield’s opening submissions on Friday, before Mr Day’s barrister, Thomas Woods, will give his opening to the jury.