A co-accused and key witness in the alleged theft of a high-end jewelry store worth $2.8 million will not testify, court has been told, the Sydney businessman accused of having organized the fraudulent theft of his own store having once again been denied. bail.
Germani Jewelery owner Michel Germani has been charged with a series of offenses relating to what police allege was the planned robbery of his own store inside the Hilton Hotel in Sydney’s CBD early from last year.
The Crown Prosecutor told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday that in early 2023 Mr Germani was in financial difficulty, which prompted the alleged offending.
The Crown alleges he conspired with his co-accused, Giulia Penna – who has been charged with several offenses including robbery and is still before the courts – to recruit the two fake thieves.
Police were called to Mr Germani’s store on January 19 last year and found him and another member of staff tied by his hands and legs using cable ties.
CCTV showed the two suspected fake thieves entering the store, under the guise of looking at a piece of jewelry, before asking staff to empty the contents of several safes into a bag.
The Crown Prosecutor told the NSW Supreme Court on Tuesday that in early 2023 Mr Germani was in financial difficulty, which prompted the alleged offending. Mr Germani is pictured with his wife Coco
Mr. Germani then filed an insurance claim for 164 items with a wholesale value of $2.8 million and a retail value of $7.5 million.
Mr Germani allegedly organized the theft in order to defraud his insurer, the court was told.
He was charged with aggravated theft and deprivation of liberty, attempting to dishonestly obtain a financial advantage by deception, publishing false and misleading documents to obtain property and participating in a criminal group.
He has been in pre-trial detention since his arrest in May last year and his lawyer Matthew Kalyk appeared in the Supreme Court on Tuesday to request the businessman’s release on bail.
Mr. Kalyk told the court that Ms. Penna had initially planned to testify against Mr. Germani; however, this was no longer the case.
“The absence of his evidence leaves a significant gap in the Crown’s case,” Mr. Kalyk said.
The court heard that on January 11, 2023, a man named Joseph Esber allegedly contacted police and claimed Mr Germani was “looking for people to commit a theft at his jewelry store in order to make a fraudulent insurance claim”.
Mr Kalyk told the court Mr Esber had been convicted of more than 100 offences, including fraud.
He argued that the reliability of Mr. Esber’s testimony affected the strength of the Crown’s case.
Police were called to Mr Germani’s store on January 19 last year and found him and another member of staff tied by his hands and legs using cable ties.
The court was told Mr Esber was not being treated as a person of interest in the case, which Mr Kalyk described as “important” and questioned why he was not being questioned by police.
Crown prosecutor Burton Ko told the court police were relying on a number of circumstantial evidence, including phone intercepts and mobile data.
The court was told that mobile phone tower data placed Mr Germani and Ms Penna, along with other co-accused, in the same area on the morning of the robbery.
It was alleged Mr Germani met Ms Penna and the two alleged thieves at her Strathfield home on the morning of the alleged offence.
“If the plaintiff’s assertion that Ms. Penna was responsible and that he was not responsible for what happened, it would mean that, in the Crown’s case, the plaintiff met with these same people a few hours before these two people robbed Mr. Germani, and Ms. Penna was there,” Mr. Ko said.
The court was told Mr Germani had offered $150,000 in bail through a number of supporters, and $600,000 in equity had been offered by an associate.
Despite Mr. Kalyk’s estimate that Mr. Germani might not face trial until the middle of next year, Judge Stephen Rothman denied his request for bail.
