Sting `failed to notice pounds 6m was missing'

Gordon Sumner once lived off benefits of pounds 16 per week. Ten years later, as pop superstar Sting, he held 47 bank accounts, treated the writing of a pounds 690,000 cheque as "not unusual" and earned so much money that he failed to notice nearly pounds 5m of it was missing.

The "flood" of money that came in once his band The Police became successful meant that the singer relied "a great deal" on the accountant accused of stealing pounds 6m from him, Southwark Crown Court heard yesterday.

"There were record royalties, mainly from the international sale of albums and singles, performance royalties from giving concerts, publishing royalties from the songs I wrote, and performance royalties from the songs on the radio, and I also acted in films," said the 43-year-old former schoolteacher.

"I earned a very great deal of money from a very great number of sources. It was very complex. I certainly was not qualified to really understand the complexity or control the complexity."

The singer was giving evidence on the second day of a trial in which his accountant, Keith Moore, 51, denies 15 sample charges of theft between August 1988 and July 1992.

"I relied on Mr Moore a great deal," he said. "He introduced me to Coutts Bank, where I eventually ended up putting my money. It was his job to move money around in the banks. He was my financial controller." Sting told the jury that if he wanted to know how much he was worth, he would go to Mr Moore to find out.

The six-man, six-woman jury trying Mr Moore, of Fulham, south-west London, heard how the accountant allegedly used large chunks of Sting's multi- million pound fortune in unsuccessful business speculation and twice to "stave off" bankruptcy. The court heard that Mr Moore lost most of the cash in ventures ranging from the conversion of a Russian aircraft to an ill-fated bid to set up an international chain of Indian restaurants - all without the star's permission.

Sting had celebrated his 40th birthday by authorising a pounds 691,871 banker's draft to the Inland Revenue, which he thought was to settle his own tax but which went to settle Mr Moore's. "I had to go to Mexico City to do concerts. On the morning I left a fax arrived from Moore ... saying this tax had to be paid urgently, would I sign it. It's not an unusual amount for me to be paying in income tax.'' He only became aware of 30 unauthorised payments made by Mr Moore after receiving an anonymous letter in 1992. He was eventually reimbursed by Coutts - the Queen's personal bankers - from where pounds 4.8m was allegedly siphoned off by Mr Moore from one of the star's accounts to his own company, Gramelda Investments.

The trial continues today.