Fight over luxury car

A GOLD COAST accountant is fighting the state for the keys to a $240,000 Lamborghini Diablo, saying the car was a 40th birthday present from her husband before his death.

Queensland has seized the car under proceeds of crime laws as part of the estate of cannabis kingpin Justin Corke because the car was at his house when police raided it.

But Nelli Erchova, 49, from Helensvale, has told the court she is the legal owner because it was given to her by defacto husband Rick Mayne in 2008.

Mayne, an auto engineer, bought it new in 1991, she told the Supreme Court in Brisbane.

Erchova says the car “went missing or was stolen” from Mayne’s Southport workshop “between July 10 and July 17, 2010” while she was overseas.

She says she did not believe that Mayne would sell the car without her knowledge.

“Rick passed away without being able to tell me what had happened to the Lamborghini,” Erchova told the court.