George and Faye Testa didn’t battle for justice for the past 18 months for themselves – they did it for their friends and family.
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The Mt Warrigal couple will have $17,647 returned in the wake of the conviction of their former friend Manuel Paradisis for pocketing the proceeds of a fundraiser held for them at Bella Portofino on January 31, 2015.
''The main reason we pursued this was out of respect for the 450 guests at the fundraiser.''
More importantly for the Testas though, is the fact that the ‘’truth has finally come out’’.
‘’We didn’t fight for this to get the money back – for the most part it didn’t look like we’d get a dollar of it,’’ Mr Testa said.
‘’The main reason we pursued this was out of respect for the 450 guests at the fundraiser. We have to look at these people in the face and if we would have lain down and did nothing, then we wouldn’t have been able to do that.’’
The situation has added unnecessary stress for Mr Testa, 44, who was diagnosed as a tetraplegic after routine surgery to replace a disc in his neck last September 2014 went tragically wrong.
‘’You walk into hospital and go under the knife and then wake up four hours later with no feeling from the shoulders down – to say that is devastating is a major understatement,’’ he said.
‘’But then to see the community rally behind me like they did was so uplifting, and on the night of the fundraiser my wife and I also renewed our wedding vows.
‘’We went from the highs of that night, to the lows of the next days and then weeks and months as we tried to get some justice.’’
The couple – who have two children – planned to use the money for a specialist wheelchair and were forced to find other funds to purchase that vital piece of equipment. Now they will use it to help buy a suitable vehicle.
Mr Testa still has no movement or feeling from the chest down, but he has gained a little more movement in his arms through his efforts with physio.
More than 20 Illawarra businesses banded together to renovate the family home and make it wheelchair-accessible, and they were able to move back in together last December.
‘’It’s great to be living as a family once again,’’ Mrs Testa said.
‘’We’ve faced a lot of challenges in these past two years, and this was a stress we didn’t need. You don’t expect someone to use your husband’s disability to do something like this.’’
‘Money troubles’ led to charity swindle
Personal financial woes led Bella Portofino manager Manuel Paradisis to pocket almost $18,000 in charity funds raised during an event at his function centre, it has been revealed.
Lawyers for Paradisis told his sentencing hearing on Friday that he had been experiencing “financial issues in relation to his business” at the time he took the money, which had been raised during a charity function for Mt Warrigal builder George Testa held at the premises on January 31.
The court heard Paradisis had been handed the money for safe keeping, however later took it for his own use, then repeatedly misled the Testa family about its whereabouts.
The family ultimately reported the matter to police, resulting in larceny charges being laid against Paradisis late last year.
He was found guilty of the lesser charge of fraudulent appropriation in court on Thursday.
On Friday, he was sentenced to 300 hours of community service and ordered to pay a $2000 fine on top of repaying the $17,647 he took.
Magistrate Mark Douglass described Paradisis’ actions as serious, saying the amount of money taken was the bulk of the fundraising efforts.
“If the community was asked their reaction [to the offending], most people would say it was a low act; an act where the money was for a good cause and was held from the recipient for not just days but months,” he said.
“The victim trusted this person, he was given the money and at some point in a time fairly close to [then], it was misappropriated.”
Defence barrister Robert Steward told the court Paradisis had experienced additional punishment by way of media coverage surrounding his case, saying he had coped abuse from his neighbours owing to the publicity.
- Shannon Tonkin