THE COURTS:
The Bug’s finance and investment columnist Morrie Bezzle has appeared in court on a range of charges under consumer protection and copyright laws as a result of hundreds of complaints from disappointed moviegoers as well as US movie studio Warners Brothers, makers of the just-released Barbie movie.
Morrison Edison Ponzi Phar Lap Bezzle, age and address unknown, (main picture) pleaded not guilty to all charges during a brief committal hearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Lewis Terry said the Brisbane residents who lodged complaints all told police they had responded to advertisements placed online and in newspapers by Bezzle.
“The advertisements promised ‘platinum-class’ seating at a screening of the Barbie movie in luxurious seating with complimentary champagne and a gourmet cheeseboard all for $250 per ticket,” he said.
“Police visited a premises occupied by Mr Bezzle, namely a former panel beaters workshop in Acacia Ridge, where they found a film in a projector ready for screening.
“On a close examination of the film police discovered it was a 1988 movie titled Hotel Terminus: The Life and Times of Klaus Barbie – the dramatised life story of the notorious Nazi war criminal.” (below)
Sergeant Terry said Bezzle was found in a kitchen at the premises preparing food for the next screening.
“Police then were able to confirm claims made by complainants that the gourmet cheeseboard promised to them in fact consisted entirely of roughly cut slices of processed Coon-brand cheese well past its use-by date which Mr Bezzle admitted he had obtained cheaply at the time the product underwent a name-change in 2021.
“Bezzle also admitted that he had personally made the ‘champagne’ he served at screenings by using a flagon of moselle and a bicycle pump.
“The ‘luxury platinum-class’ seating consisted entirely of a range of mismatched and heavily damaged car seats removed from vehicles that had been repaired at the now defunct panel beaters,” Sergeant Terry said.
Magistrate Madge E Strait granted bail and remanded Bezzle to appear again on a date to be set.
She also noted that a number of parents of children who attended the screenings had already initiated civil proceedings against Bezzle seeking damages for the alleged trauma inflicted on them.
Outside the court Mr Bezzle’s lawyer Dickie Shearman JP (pictured very left) told reporters the charges had been brought against his client by “petty pen-pushers and killjoys”.
“This type of persecution is deliberately designed to prevent a reputable and upstanding citizen from making a living, not to mention the impact it will have on Australian cheese farmers,” he said.
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