Nicole Perrin joyous, but Stacey McIvor distraught in Cronin Island home dramas
There's been joyous celebration on the Cronin Island, the luxury Gold Coast location, just days after tears that followed an emotional auction elsewhere on the island enclave.
Nicole Bricknell, the former wife of the penniless former Billabong surfwear boss Matthew Perrin, has won her battle against the Commonwealth Bank, which was seeking to repossess her beloved family home.
The Queensland Supreme Court has found the former Billabong chief repeatedly forged the signature of his wife (and brother) to secure a $13.5 million loan from the Commonwealth Bank.
The ruling means the Commonwealth Bank cannot enforce its mortgage over the couple's Gold Coast mansion or enforce personal guarantees against Perrin's wife. Outside court, an emotional Bricknell, who is now divorced and who has reverted to her maiden name, said she was glad the proceedings were over.
Justice Philip McMurdo found Matthew Perrin went to "elaborate" lengths to forge his wife's signature. The court heard they were "very good forgeries."
In order to forge one document, he obtained a slip signed by his wife giving one of their daughters permission to take part in school sports, cut out the signature and "by a process of cut-and-paste" produced a backdated power of attorney, McMurdo found.
The $13.5 million was borrowed against the Cronin Island house when it was valued at $15 million in 2008.
"The plaintiff’s claim against the defendant (Perrin) will be dismissed," McMurdo ruled.
"The defendant has established that the register should be corrected to remove the bank’s mortgages.
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Meanwhile the luxury Gold Coast abode of the recently resigned managing director of besieged Equititrust, Mark McIvor (pictured above), was passed in at weekend auction on a $4.9 million bid, well short of the wanted figure and reportedly $1.6 million beneath its most recent valuation.
After the two-storey riverfront home designed by Sydney-based architect Alex Popov was passed in the auction attendees noted McIvor's wife Stacey was in tears.
"It's a demonstration of a hard market given it is well below replacement cost," Mark McIvor told the local press.
"We are not in a hurry and we prefer to sell it to someone who appreciates what it has to offer, it is a magnificent home."
It’s one of the 33 properties on the island located just two kilometres inland from the coast.
McIvor, now managing director of Landsolve Partners, built the house on the $1 million block, which he bought in 1994.
The island’s highest sale was $8 million in 2004, when an older-style house on 2,300 square metres was sold.
Equititrust, which became known for using a Roman voussoir arch as its marketing logo to suggest structural stability, was among the many unlisted mortgage funds to take a battering following the 2008 financial crisis.
In April 2011 Equititrust confirmed it had stopped paying income distributions to unit holders in two funds housing more than $300 million worth of assets as it accelerated its debt repayments to its banks.
Equititrust investors have been through hell with their money frozen for more than three years, with interest payments stopped and the value of their units substantially devalue, and with no end in sight. Lawyers Piper Alderman continues to investigate the merits of a unit holder class action against Equititrust Limited.
