THE COURTS:
BRISBANE: The Bug’s finance and investment columnist Morrie Bezzle has appeared in court here on a range of charges under consumer protection laws following hundreds of complaints to police from people who bought what they thought were tickets to the upcoming Australia-versus-England semi-final of the Women’s Football World Cup in Sydney.
Morrison Edison Ponzi Phar Lap Bezzle, age and address unknown, pleaded not guilty to all charges during a brief committal hearing in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Lewis Terry said those who lodged complaints all told police they had responded to advertisements placed online and in newspapers by Bezzle.
“The advertisements promised buyers that they could ‘see the Matildas’ if they purchased ‘$2,400 ticketing packages’ which were presented as being ‘strictly limited’ in number,” Sergeant Terry said.
“Those football fans who responded to the ads and paid Mr Bezzle $2,400 received in return only some printed information or tourist brochures about (clockwise in main picture) the Waltzing Matilda Museum at Winton in outback Queensland, the oversized Matilda mascot used for the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane and which is now located at a Sunshine Coast service station, and a performance of Matilda the Musical being staged by Year 12 students at a southside Brisbane high school.
“In fact no tickets to the World Cup semi-final match at Stadium Australia were sent to any of the buyers, just a ‘ticketing package’ containing information about how they could go about buying tickets to one of the three venues or events listed – one of which, the Matilda kangaroo mascot, requires no payment to see.”
Sergeant Terry said Bezzle also supplied to buyers information about one-on-one meetings with “Matildas’ superstars” included in the “ticketing package’ price.
“Investigations by police revealed that although the real names of persons linked to the Australian Women’s World Cup team were used by Bezzle, the persons concerned (left to right below) were actually Samuel Kerr, amateur historian from Winton; Courtney Vine, retired service station cashier from the Sunshine Coast; and Toni Gustavson, a member of the P&C of a southside Brisbane high school,” he said.
Magistrate Madge E Strait granted bail and remanded Bezzle to appear again on a date to be set.
Outside the court Mr Bezzle (below) said he would be “vigorously defending” himself in the coming court case.
“This is yet more blatant victimisation of a genuine small business entrepreneur by shiny-arsed bureaucrats and crooked coppers,” he said.
When pressed as he walked away from reporters at increasing speed, Mr Bezzle explained that he would be conducting his own defence because his usual legal adviser Dickie Shearman RACQ (pictured below) was “otherwise engaged for several months” in what he described as “a complex sentencing matter” at the Palen Creek prison farm in the Gold Coast hinterland.
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