THE entrepreneur who plans to bottle and market Sydney water internationally attempted yesterday to have a Supreme Court trial judge disqualified, on the grounds the judge refused to say if he was Jewish or a Freemason.

Paul Makucha is being sued by Sydney Water Corporation for $293,000 it says was incorrectly paid to him and his various companies in a scheme concocted by Mr Makucha and a former senior executive, Edward Harvey.

Paul Makucha ... "I'm terrified of the Freemasons." Credit:Dean Sewell

Mr Makucha claims he owns the intellectual property for the marketing and selling of bottled water under the name Sydney Water because the trademark did not extend that far. He told the court intellectual property was not recognised under Jewish law and requested ''that any judge that is Jewish … not hear this case because they may be influenced by religious beliefs regarding intellectual property''.

He also said the NSW Treasurer, Eric Roozendaal, one of the two shareholding ministers in Sydney Water, had used masonic code in a picture published in the Herald in January because his ''eyes were looking up - that's an imitation of Jesus - it's a masonic code''.