Guy Sebastian’s wife has entered the witness box to testify against her husband’s long-time manager, who is suspected of stealing nearly $900,000 from his celebrity client.
Late on Thursday, Jules Sebastian was called as a witness in the case against Titus Day, who is facing a jury trial in Sydney’s Downing Centre District Court.
‘Officially my name is Julie Sebastian, but everyone calls me Jules, so Jules Sebastian,’ the mother-of-two answered when asked for her entire name.
The celebrity stylist is one of the last witnesses for the Crown as it seeks to show Day failed to pay Sebastian at least $886,175 in royalties, performance fees and an ambassadorship.
Day has pleaded not guilty to 50 charges of embezzlement as a clerk or servant, and 50 alternative counts of stealing.
The Crown claims Day received the payments to his client between 2013 and 2020, but rather than forwarding the money to Sebastian, kept it for his own purposes.
Jules Sebastian, who has been married to The Voice coach for 14 years, was asked about her own ambassadorship for PlayKids, an education and entertainment app for preschool-age children.
She said she had agreed to promote PlayKids for a $15,000 fee between April and May 2015.
The sometime TV host said she could not be sure if she had performed every task outlined in an email detailing the arrangement ‘but absolutely work was done for PlayKids during the time’.
She confirmed she had been paid $6403.25 as a first instalment for her work through Day’s company 6 Degrees.
Her evidence in chief finished at that point. She will be cross-examined on Friday morning.
The court has previously heard her husband suspected Day had embezzled money from him after the chart-topping singer had ended their business relationship.
Sebastian examined financial records after that bitter split and allegedly discovered ‘anomalies’.
The amounts of money the 49-year-old is alleged to have embezzled range from $361.34 in royalties to $187,524 in performance fees. One charge concerns a $21,000 ambassadorship.
The court heard Day was entrusted to manage Sebastian’s income while the pair worked together at the manager’s agency 6 Degrees from 2009 to 2017.
Day, a qualified lawyer, had first managed Sebastian in 2007 while working for 22 Management, run by Sean Anderson.
Sebastian had about nine months left on a three-year contract when Day approached him in July 2009 to join his own new company 6 Degrees.
The court has heard Sebastian agreed to move to 6 Degrees without signing a contract. He had an agreement with Day under which the agent was to receive a 20 per cent commission on his earnings.
Sebastian terminated the arrangement in November 2017 in what became an acrimonious split.
The court heard Sebastian subsequently found ‘anomalies’ in financial records suggesting he was still owed payments by Day and in July 2018 the performer launched a civil claim against him.
Day made a counter claim against Sebastian claiming he was owed money, which led to an examination of the agent’s banking records allegedly revealing further anomalies.
Sebastian then went to police and Day was arrested at his eastern suburbs home in July 2020.
The ARIA Award-winner was in the witness box for more than a week giving evidence in chief and under cross-examination by Day’s barrister Dominic Toomey SC.
Sebastian won the first series of Australian Idol in 2003 over Shannon Noll, another former Day client.
The 40-year-old has been tour to promote his recent T.R.U.T.H. album during the court case and appeared as a judge on Network Seven’s latest series of The Voice.
