‘Hardest time in my life’: Guy Sebastian’s former manager Titus Day made accounting ‘mistakes’ after his mother became ill

Guy Sebastian’s former manager “made mistakes” in accounting towards the end of the pair’s tumultuous relationship because his mother had become ill, the period marking the “hardest time in (his) life”. Titus Emanuel Day is standing trial for allegedly embezzling $640,000 of Mr Sebastian’s royalties and performance fees, including the alleged failure to remit $187,000 to Mr Sebastian for performance fees as a support act for Swift on her 2013 Red tour of Australia and other corporate gigs and performances. Mr Day has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of embezzlement as a clerk or servant and one count of attempting to dishonestly obtain financial advantage by deception. He has denied doing anything fraudulent or dishonest. Mr Day took the stand to give evidence-in-chief on Friday, telling the court how issues had begun to “creep in” to his management company, 6 Degrees, as a result of pressure sparked by his mother’s declining health around 2016. He told the court his mother was diagnosed with advanced Alzheimer’s dementia around 2015. By the time she came to live with he and his family in 2016 she was so ill she was in a “zombie state”, prompting his wife, Courtney, to effectively step aside from her work at the company to care for his mother. The court was told his wife played a “critical” role at 6 Degrees, with her duties ranging across creative work such as video clips, music production, songwriting production and dealing with record labels: when she left, Mr Day had to “pick up all the slack” and delegate work to other staff. Another high level employee also had to step aside to care for Mr Day’s mother at one point. “Personally this was probably the hardest time in my life,” Mr Day told the court. He said all of his clients “suffered” as a result, and that he’d made some accounting “mistakes” during this period and could no longer be with clients on tours. “Because my attention was taken away, but also spread thin, it affected all my clients - all my clients suffered,” Mr Day told the court. “My accounting slipped, I wasn’t able to send statements or invoices…I made mistakes in transactions and banking descriptions.” He spoke of one example where he accidentally paid Mr Sebastian money from another of his clients, Nigerian-Australian singer Timomatic, and then paid Timomatic money from Mr Sebastian. “(I) made a lot of mistakes on banking descriptions…a lot of issues started to creep into the company because of the pressure,” Mr Day said. Mr Day’s barrister, Thomas Woods, earlier told the court that there would be “no dispute” that on some occasions his client should have transferred money onto Mr Sebastian “but did not”. “For many of the charges, the real question is not going to be whether my client failed to transfer the money to Sebastian but whether his failure to do that was criminal,” Mr Woods said. The former manager’s evidence-in-chief regarding the “mistakes” mentioned on Friday is expected to continue next week. Mr Day has denied doing anything fraudulent or dishonest. In terms of business growth, Mr Day told the court 2016 was the company’s busiest and most successful time, having taken on a range of clients across music, sports and media. He said it was an “extremely busy” time and he was personally receiving more than 300 emails per day, acknowledging he had “a lot less” time to devote to Mr Sebastian as opposed to the early years of their agreement. The ‘really big shift’ in the pair’s relationship Mr Sebastian moved over to Mr Day’s management company 6 Degrees three years after winning Australian Idol, having worked with him previously at Mr Day’s former agency, 22 Management. No formal agreement was signed, but the court was told their agreement was based on Mr Sebastian’s former arrangement with 22 Management. The Battle Scars singer, who was once so close with Mr Day he considered them to be a “a family of sorts”, earlier claimed he’d sent several emails to Mr Day around 2016 over concerns with their relationship, telling the court there was a “really big shift” between them around that time. In particular Mr Sebastian claimed documents, statements and invoices “were not being sent anymore”. “That side of it and then some cultural issues that were happening as well and just a general shift in the service I was being provided,” Mr Sebastian previously told the court. “I understand (6 Degrees) were getting busier as a company and that the list of clients had grown … that was starting to have some real ramifications on my business and personally as well. “I was trying really hard to remedy these issues.” Mr Sebastian told Mr Day that he was leaving his management in 2017, the court was previously told. Mr Sebastian launched Federal Court proceedings against Mr Day the following year. He in turn filed a counterclaim.