Lipscombe Larder's John Spiro Fiotakis on trial for Lamborghini insurance fraud
Don't miss out on the headlines from Tasmania. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Phone records of the Fiotakis family and a witness to a 2019 Lamborghini crash at the centre of an alleged insurance fraud case have been read out in court, showing the movements of each person before a call was placed to triple-0.
It was Constable Damien McVilly's turn to give evidence on Wednesday, the third day of the trial of 64-year-old Hobart businessman and Lipscombe Larder owner John Spiro Fiotakis.
Fiotakis has pleaded not guilty to one count of attempting by deception to acquire a financial advantage from Allianz Australia Insurance, following allegations he falsely stated he was driving the $239,000 2009 Lamborghini Gallardo vehicle when it crashed into a tree on Pittwater Rd in 2019.
Constable McVilly, a Detective Constable in the Bellerive criminal investigation branch at the time of the incident, was one of the first officers on the scene of the car fire.
As part of his investigation into the sports car crash, Constable McVilly obtained telecommunications records for the mobiles of Mr Fiotakis, his two sons Nicholas and Spiro, wife Teresa as well as Seven Mile Beach resident Luke Butcher.
Prosecutors claim the vehicle was actually being driven by the defendant's then 24-year-old son, Spiro, who was not covered by the vehicle's insurance policy which stipulated drivers must be aged 25 and over.
From the records Constable McVilly obtained through Telstra, he told the court he was able to make a map and timeline of the time surrounding the 2019 crash.
'From Luke and Shane's statements, there was a discrepancy in the timeline in that there was around a 20-minute gap from when the crash happened and when triple triple-0 were called,' Constable McVilly told prosecutor Edward Burrows-Cheng.
'That suspicion led me to further investigative tactics and obtaining telco records.'
The documents read out in court revealed a 21-minute phone call between Mr Fiotakis' son Spiro and Mr Fiotakis at 8.07pm, shortly before the crash.
Spiro's call bounced from a phone tower in Sorell before the call ended at a Richmond phone tower.
At 9.02pm, a 155-second call between Nicholas Fiotakis and John Fiotakis shows Nicholas' call bouncing from a Mt Rumney phone tower for the call duration, while John's phone connected to the Wrest Point tower and the Davey Street tower at the end of the call.
Further call records show John's phone call triple-0 and connect to a tower in Mt Rumney from the start to the end of the call.
'This helped me show that the mobile devices prescribed to John had gone from Hobart then Mt Rumney,' Constable McVilly said.
Defence counsel James Crotty questioned Detective McVilly on whether phone records would show who was actually using the phone, arguing that Mr Fiotakis gave evidence to the officer of accidentally swapping phones with Spiro.
'My recollection in conversations with John was that at some point, they had in fact switched phones,' Detective McVilly said.
'He and Spiro had switched handsets by accident, I don't recall about him leaving his handset at the Sandy Bay address.
The prosecution and defence will give their closing arguments on Wednesday afternoon.
genevieve.holding@news.com.au
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