Guy Sebastian’s ex-manager faces embezzlement retrial
Guy Sebastian’s former manager Titus Day will be retried on allegations he stole over $600,000 in royalties and performance fees from the singer over an eight-year span.
Day was imprisoned last year for a four-year maximum sentence, after being found guilty of 34 counts of embezzlement to the tune of $624,675, with the theft allegedly occurring between 2013 and 2020.
Day was freed this June, after his lawyers successfully appealed a point of law relating to the Crown prosecutor’s closing address to the jury, during which the trial judge emphasised Day’s “failure to give evidence”, giving this a negative spin despite the defendant’s right to silence.
Day will appeal the ruling on two other grounds: whether the trial judge was wrong in suggesting the definition of ‘clerk’ or servant’ applied to him in his role as Sebastian’s manager, and whether the jury were unduly pressured by a juror.
Day’s barrister Bret Walker SC, noted that Sebastian was first managed by Day at a talent agency named 22 Management, before joining Day’s own company 6 Degrees as the first client.
Day’s barrister Bret Walker, SC, noted the definition of a clerk or servant was “the only one which, on success, could produce acquittal”, adding: “We say, as a matter of proper characterisation, 6 Degrees and 6 Degrees only was the collector of moneys and Mr Day’s involvement as the human agent, no doubt the controller of 6 Degrees, was not such as to fall within the extended definition upon which the case depended.
“Mr Day was not a clerk or servant of Mr Sebastian.”
The NSW Court of Criminal Appeal today quashed Day’s convictions and ordered “a new trial”.
Day’s case will appear before the District Court on December 15, for arraignment.
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Nathan Jolly is the Deputy Editor of Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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