Mark McIvor's mother says she couldn't have even mortgaged a push bike
The mother of the Gold Coast entrepreneur Mark McIvor has sold Brisbane Supreme Court she had no idea her son convinced her to sign $22 million in mortgages.
Janice McIvor said when she found out she could lose her home and asked her son Mark for her home back, he told her she would be "effing lucky".
Janice McIvor has brought a case against Westpac seeking the bank be refrained from enforcing a mortgage and guarantees over her Currumbin home.
Janice McIvor' son Mark McIvor founded the Chevron Island merchant banking business that had $550 million in funds under management for about 1,400 clients, many of them locals, before receivers stepped in last year.
The former fashion boutique owner claims her son, who had a "very bad temper", asked her to sign many documents over the years and she never investigated what they were.
"God, I was scared. I was shocked ... I owed the bank $22 million," she told the court according to News Ltd papers.
Janice McIvor said she now had no relationship with her son after the two argued when she discovered the situation and she obtained her own legal advice and refused to hand over the property.
When asked why she signed documents without reading thoroughly, she said it was because she trusted her son.
"I am not that stupid because if I had read that, I would have thought how could I mortgage anything," she said.
"I had nothing to pay anything back with for that amount. I couldn't even have mortgaged a push bike.
"I didn't read anything. I just signed because I trusted Mark and I thought he's doing well and I must be helping him with whatever it was.
"On reflection now, after having been cost a lot of heartache, I can see all that but at the time it was simply doing something for my son."
