Jackson camp 'took tapes illegally'

Paul Anka has claimed that Michael Jackson or his aides originally stole and copied the master tapes of 'This Is It'.

The 'My Way' lyricist suggested that the track he co-wrote with Jackson 28 years ago, which was then called 'I Never Heard', was illegally taken by the singer's entourage, WENN reports.

Anka said: "He didn't finish the project and I didn't have the rights to put it on one of my albums.

"I don't know if it was Michael or those around him, but they did illegally take the tapes from the studio. I was very upset about it and I went to his lawyers, who were my lawyers. It almost got into a legal issue."

He added: "They returned the tapes, but Michael had obviously copied those original tapes and put them away. That copy he had in his drawer was the one they used, thinking it was a new song."

Regarding the release of the track on Jackson's new compilation, Anka confirmed: "It got resolved in about two hours.

"Everything is sorted out. The right thing has been done. Everyone is happy. It was an honest mistake."