Mrs Morris stops Palm Beach clifftop sale of ex-GP Noble boss Tony Morris’ former Australian home
The proposed sale of the former Palm Beach home of Tony Morris, the ex-principal of GP Noble currently on trial in the UK over fraud allegations, and his soon-to be-ex-wife, Vanessa Morris-Jackson, has stalled.
There was an application to the Australian Federal Magistrates Court by his bankruptcy trustee Andrew Wily to sell it - for reputedly about $4.6 million. But Magistrate Rolf Driver ruled yesterday against Wily’s application to delete the requirement for Vanessa’s consent to any sale of the northern beaches clifftop house. It had been passed in on a $5 million vendor bid at its March Raine & Horne auction.
Peter Gosnell’s Sydney Insolvency News reported last October that the mortgage was running at about $25,000 a month, with the National Australia Bank owed more than $5 million and accumulating penalty interest as Vanessa, was unable to meet them. During the course of Wily's application last Friday Gosnell reported the court heard that the unserviced mortgage was now accumulating at around $30,000 per month with its secured lender NAB owed $5.187 million. Gosnell reported Vanessa, who was initially bankrupted along with her husband, managed to have the order overturned, restoring her right to 50% of the north-facing home.
Valuations for the property mentioned in the court last October ranged from $6.2 million to $6.5 million, hence the hesitation to accept the current highest offer which doesn't cover the bank debt.
The court was told this week that the offer came from a Dr Gregory.
Wily had been appointed trustee in bankruptcy to the estate of Tony Morris after Morris failed to pay $50,000 in legal fees owed to this lawyers, HWL Ebsworth.
Tony Morris now of the rural village, Chiltern Polden, Somerset, denies conspiring to defraud, two counts of theft and two counts of aiding and abetting fraud.
This week's UK trial at Southwark Crown Court heard allegations that Mr Morris raided nine retirement schemes, managed by GP Noble, to fund a lavish lifestyle is currently underway in the United Kingdom. Morris was alleged to pocketed the cash to invest in Thai luxury resorts, online bookmakers and pay off his first ex-wife, it was claimed by the prosecutor David Farrar QC.
Farrar told the jury he believed that Morris had orchestrated the alleged disinvestment of the funds held by Nottingham-based firm GP Noble in tranches of £30 million and £22 million between April 2007 and July 2008.
It was alleged the cash was siphoned out of the UK through British Virgin Islands-registered company Fareston and another offshore company associated with Mr Morris, called Multiple Unilateral Financial Futures.
The court heard Morris had been chief executive of TMP until 2005. In 2007, he moved to Australia, with his former business partner Richard Craven telling jurors he had given Morris £14.9 million after he left.
Farrar added: "Mr Morris intended to use part of the funds for his own substantial personal needs, such as settling his wife's substantial claim in their divorce proceedings."
In a 2010 interview with Channel Seven at his clifftop home Morris said he was innocent and would return to England to speak to police to clear his name.
"I've got a lot to lose, a lot to lose. I'm confident I won't be charged, but that's what terrifies me," he said.
David Egan of Raine & Horne is marketing the property.
The wedding photography was by Blumenthal Photography with a story by Sheriden Rhodes on the www.weddinglistco.com.au website.
