The clifftop Aman at Palm Beach sells for $4.5 million - a 40% price drop

Jonathan ChancellorApril 29, 2013

The former Palm Beach retreat of the bankrupted Tony Morris, the former GP Noble entrepreneur acquitted in a 2012 UK trial over fraud allegations, has been quietly sold for $4.5 million.

It was sold by his former wife, Vanessa Morris. The couple had paid $7.45 million in 2006.

The couple were married at nearby Jonahs in 2008 in a Moroccan-themed wedding party – she was in a dress by Monique Lhuillier.

There was a rejected application in May 2012 to the Australian Federal Magistrates Court by Morris’s bankruptcy trustee Andrew Wily to sell it – for reputedly about $4.6 million.

It was sold earlier this year through LJ Hooker Palm Beach who had an initial price guide of over $5 million.

Valuations for the property in late 2011 ranged from $6.2 million to $6.5 million, hence the hesitation to accept the highest $4.6 million offer, which Title Tattle recalls didn't cover the bank debt.

The mortgage was running at $25,000 a month, with the National Australia Bank owed about $5.2 million and accumulating penalty interest.

It has been bought by the Gregory family who'd maintained an Avalon weekender.

Tony Morris, the ex-principal of GP Noble, had been extradited in 2011 from Sydney to defend the charges of which he was acquitted.

In a 2010 interview with Channel Seven at his clifftop home Morris has said he was innocent.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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