LOAN RANGER
How mayor Tom Tate came to rescue of embattled PR guru
TWO unlikely white knights have come to the aid of embattled PR guru Simone Holzapfel – Mayor Tom Tate and colourful Sydney businessman Jim Byrnes.
Legal action by Ms Holzapfel and her developer husband Matt Robinson is being bankrolled by Mr Byrnes. The Mayor has also chipped in, putting deposits on two properties partowned by Mr Robinson and Mr Byrnes so the couple could repay a debt to billionaire developer Bob Ell.
Supreme Court documents show the sale to Cr Tate failed to settle on schedule after another lender refused to release mortgages on the two blocks.
TWO unlikely white knights have come to the aid of embattled PR guru Simone Holzapfel – Mayor Tom Tate and colourful Sydney businessman Jim Byrnes.
Legal action by Ms Holzapfel and her developer husband Matt Robinson is being bankrolled by Mr Byrnes, the twice-bankrupt former financial adviser of Alan Bond who a magistrate once described as a “stand-over thug”.
The Mayor has also chipped in for his former media adviser, putting deposits on two properties partowned by Mr Robinson and Mr Byrnes so the couple could repay a debt to billionaire developer Bob Ell.
Supreme Court documents show the sale to Cr Tate failed to settle on schedule after another lender refused to release mortgages on the two blocks, which have a total area of 7.33ha.
Mr Byrnes is part owner of Bromelton Paddock, the company directed by Mr Robinson that owns the land Cr Tate tried to buy.
Ms Holzapfel and her husband are fighting multiple court cases and financial difficulties and a slew of their companies, some of which are in external administration, are the subject of strikeoff action or have been deregistered.
There is no suggestion Cr Tate is otherwise associated with Mr Byrnes.
Documents in a mortgagee case against Bromelton Paddock indicate the couple and their companies have $3.83 million in loan agreements related to their conjoined properties at Gleneagle, near Beaudesert.
They show Varsity Lakes lender Weldev Capital refused to release mortgages it held on the two lots Cr Tate was buying as Ms Holzapfel, Mr Robinson and their companies had not paid fees and interest the lender claimed were due.
Weldev agreed to loan $350,000 to Bromelton Paddock and $1.38 million to Ms Holzapfel’s company Amalfi Invest, and subsequently registered mortgages over their properties.
The $350,000 loan funds were never drawn by Bromelton Paddock. However, the lender argued fees and interest were still due as they’d incurred costs and missed opportunities while holding capital for the loan.
The borrowers argue the fees should not apply and that the mortgages are invalid as the loan was never settled.
Emails tendered to the court claim the lender was counting on the sale of the two blocks to Cr Tate so proceeds could be used to pay the fees owed to the lender and to release an existing mortgage to Bob Ell’s Leda.
However, they show Weldev executive Adam Webb was concerned the net proceeds of $477,500 would not cover the outstanding amounts to Weldev and Leda as Bromelton had already taken deposits from the Mayor, who was also eligible for a discounted price on the land.
The Bromelton case is running concurrently with a case between Weldev and Amalfi over the $1.38 million loan for the largest of the properties, in which Ms Holzapfel has argued an attempted repossession of the 126ha block was unlawful.
The couple have registered mortgages on all parts of their Gleneagle land, including two on the largest block, which was the venue for their wedding, attended by the Mayor, last year.
As well as the $1.38 million loan from Weldev against that block, Sydney firm Lehne Investments has a second mortgage over it, relating to a $1.05 million loan. Weldev and Lehne also have mortgages over a neighbouring 4.6ha block where Bromelton Paddock has applied to build a 50-lot housing estate.
Mortgage documents show Lehne loaned Bromelton another $1.05 million to secure that mortgage.
Another lender, Permanent Mortgages, has taken possession of a million-dollar Currumbin apartment Mr Robinson bought from former Gold Coast Titans coach John Cartwright. The property was passed in at auction this month and is on the market for $900,000.
After multiple attempts by the Bulletin to contact Cr Tate, he yesterday said through council staff that he would not comment on matters unrelated to the council.
Ms Holzapfel did not respond to the Bulletin’s questions yesterday. However, Mr Robinson replied with seven questions of his own and a tongue-in-cheek offer to sell the Bulletin a block of land.
“Never know, Weldev might ‘lend’ you the money to do so,” he replied.
“Anyone can. Be nice to be able to actually settle, without having to pay to remove mortgage from ‘lender’ that I haven’t ever borrowed a cent from.”
Mr Robinson rang shortly afterwards attempting to retract the statements and saying he had a substantial case against Weldev that he expected to win.
“You’re barking up a wrong tree lady and it’s going to be embarrassing when we get the claim back,” he said.
Mr Webb declined to comment.
Mr Robinson yesterday told the Gold Coast Bulletin Mr Byrnes was “a great mate and I’ve dealt with him for 30 years”.
Mr Byrnes was named a person of interest at an inquest into the death of a young man charged over an explosive 1997 arson attack on a home Mr Byrnes was in the process of buying.
Max Gibson was found in a drain, dead from a heroin overdose administered to his left arm.
He was left-handed. An inquest found there was insufficient evidence to charge anyone over the death of Gibson, despite the coroner saying the weight of evidence supported Gibson and another man “undertaking the arson of the Tara St property on behalf of Jim Byrnes”.
Byrnes was jailed in the 1980s for heroin supply and malicious wounding, and has previously been convicted of multiple driving offences.
Mr Byrnes said Ms Holzapfel had phoned him for help last year, after Mr Robinson experienced health issues.
He said the pair had been let down by a contractor on their Huonbrook development and by another lender he said had taken advantage of them.
“He’s just a guy who’s got sick, he had too many balls in the air and a couple of the balls dropped,” Mr Byrnes said, affectionately describing Mr Robinson as “an absolute ratbag and a scoundrel, but I say that in a good way”.
“He’s a boy from the bush and a larrikin, but he’s actually quite brilliant when it comes to property.”
BE NICE TO BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY SETTLE, WITHOUT HAVING TO PAY TO REMOVE MORTGAGE FROM ‘LENDER’ THAT I HAVEN’T EVER BORROWED A CENT FROM. MATT ROBINSON
Mr Byrnes said he’d bought into Bromelton Paddock to fund the development application for the 50-lot estate, which he said would go ahead despite Scenic Rim Council flagging a number of issues with the application.
Ms Holzapfel’s PR and political lobbying firm Shac Communications has also struggled with debt, with its staff gone, its Facebook page deleted and its office apparently deserted.
She has denied the company is failing.
Their development company Robinson Prospect, which was managing a 110-lot development at Huonbrook, was deregistered earlier this month, while another of their companies, Horseshoe Properties, which owns the Huonbrook land, is in external administration over unpaid debts.
Shac Communications and its owner have a contentious history, with Ms Holzapfel called as a witness at a Crime and Corruption Commission
hearing last year for her involvement in the 2016 Gold Coast City Council elections.
However, there is no suggestion that Ms Holzapfel engaged in any criminal or corrupt conduct and no further action was taken against her.
Mr Byrnes said he was funding the litigation against Weldev on behalf of the couple and that he expected to win the case and pursue extensive damages.
“I’m the one funding this litigation, I don’t care what it will cost, it will be a field day as far as I’m concerned.
“At the end of the day, it will be a court decision and the courts will decide where the law stands.”