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Julian Manduca
A smart, elegant and suave Leslie Bricusse appeared in court Thursday to give evidence in a court case brought by the police against Bricusse’s former lawyer Patrick Spiteri.
Interrupting the prosecuting inspector, the double Oscar winning composer told Magistrate Jacqueline Padovani Grima that a mere week ago Patrick Spiteri had phoned his lawyer to offer USD3,000 to drop a court action against him.
Bricusse, who lives in Monaco and whose mother-in-law is Maltese had earlier told the court how Patrick Spiteri had been recommended to him by his lawyer in France.
A winner of Oscars in 1967 and 1982 for his musical scores of Doctor Doolittle and Victor Victoria, Bricusse explained to a packed court how he was planning to buy a property in Malta for his sick mother-in-law, but how he and his wife had since changed their mind.
He told the court that Patrick Spiteri, as his lawyer since 1996, had advised him to invest the money he had in Maltese banks in Malta government bonds telling him that he “would earn better interest and not have to pay tax,” and that he decided to take the advice. He told the court how he had given his power of attorney to Patrick Spiteri who in turn promised to invest the money.
Bricusse gave Spiteri GBP150,000, but it later resulted that none of the money had been invested.
“A cheque of Lm19,000 was once sent by Spiteri to invest in bonds, but the cheque bounced, and it now appears that none of my money was invested.”
Bricusse presented several documents in court, amongst them four indicating that an investment was made, but which, he said, were false. He said that after asking Spiteri what had happened to his money over several years and not getting a satisfactory reply, he had contacted the Malta Stock Exchange which in turn, referred him to Globe Investments.
Giving testimony for more than half an hour Bricusse detailed the number of times that Spiteri told him the funds would soon be returned to him. He said Spiteri would blame the Maltese tax authorities for the delays.
At one point the famous musical composer said that Spiteri told him he was waiting for instructions from the Office of the Prime Minister which were to soon be relayed to the Finance Minister so that the funds could be released without any tax paid.
When Bricusse mentioned Spiteri’s recent offer of USD3,000 to forget the case, the claim brought an immediate reaction from Spiteri’s lawyer Emanuel Mallia who told the court that what Bricusse had alleged was “hearsay”.
Later lawyer Michael Grech, who is appearing as parte civile for Bricusse, took the witness stand and said that an offer of USD3,000 was made to Bricusse through him several times by Spiteri so that the case be shelved. According to Grech, Spiteri had told him that USD3,000 was what he could offer.
While giving evidence Bricusse told the court that he thought that Patrick Spiteri “was laughing in his face” about the money.
He said that Spiteri often told him the funds would soon be returned to him, but other times when he contacted Spiteri’s office he was told that Spiteri was abroad and one time was told that Spiteri was in prison.
Spiteri had told him he had invested the GBP150,000 in separate amounts of Lm20,000 and Lm25,000.
Even before Bricusse started giving evidence, Spiteri’s lawyer Gianella Caruana Curran notified Magistrate Padovani Grima that the defence team was not notified about Bricusse giving evidence and was therefore not prepared to make its cross examination.
Dr Emanuel Mallia ensured the court took note that the defence, although wanting to cross-examine Bricusse, was not able to attend court Friday because of prior appointments, and did not have the time to examine the documents presented by the claimant.
Bricusse left Malta on Friday and had earlier told the court that he did not intend to return to Malta.
julian@newsworksltd.com
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