Italian fraudsters claimed royalties for Sir Paul McCartney and Tom Jones songs
Italian music producers fraudulently claimed hundreds of thousands of euros from Italian authorities after claiming to have written My Love and Sex Bomb
Tom Jones and Sir Paul McCartney are among British rock star victims Photo: REX FEATURES
By Alice Philipson in Rome
3:18PM GMT 15 Feb 2015
Sir Paul McCartney and Tom Jones are among British rock star victims of an elaborate scam by two Italian music producers in which they claimed royalties for some of the biggest songs of recent decades.
The fraudsters received hundreds of thousands of euros from Italian authorities after they conspired to claim authorship of Jones's song Sex Bomb – written by Mousse T. & Errol Rennalls – and McCartney's My Love, a song the former Beatles star dedicated to his late wife Linda.
Athos Poma, and his accomplice Giuseppe Fedi, claimed rights to more than 200 tracks over a period of three years.
The pair took advantage of an error at the Italian Society of Authors and Publishers, the Italian body responsible for copyright protection, that meant composers of many popular songs were not properly registered in the system.
While the problem was fixed, the organisation created a holding fund for royalties until they could be returned to the rightful recipient.
Poma, under the guidance of Fedi, an employee of the society, told the authority that he was the composer of many of the unregistered tracks.
Between the start of 2006 and the end of 2008, Poma claimed rights to 220 songs, including Liar by Queen, All I need by Radiohead and People are Strange by The Doors.
The pair made a total of 250,000 euros from the scam.
Poma has been sentenced to a year and six months in jail for fraud, while Fedi, who also appeared in court on fraud charges, was given a sentence of a year and eight months on Saturday.
Poma was acquitted on charges of plagiarism.
Giuseppe Vagiaco and Giovanni D'masses, defending Poma, said their client would appeal.
"Athos Poma is one of the most important music producers in Italy and over the last 25 years, he has always carried out his work in a professional manner," they said.
My Love was the most successful track from Paul McCartney and Wings' 1973 album Red Rose Speedway, reaching number nine in the UK charts.
It has since been covered by several artists including Cher and more recently, Corrine Bailey Rae.
Sex Bomb was released in May 2000 and climbed to number three in the UK charts. It was the biggest selling single from his album Reload.
