Gilmore ‘needs to pay bills’ before tilt for council

‘‘Do you know who I am?’’ and threatened to get the prime minister’s office to have them sacked.

Gilmore, the 59thranked National list MP at the time, later fronted a media conference to apologise.

He drew up the loan agreement with his parents in October 2018, a fact that is not disputed by either party. It initially gave Gilmore 37 days to pay the loan back, his parents said. He made initial instalments worth $70,000, but the most recent payment made was $500 in June 2019.

‘‘We’re hurt over the way he’s treating us. We never raised him this way,’’ his mother told Stuff. ‘‘There are other members of our family we want to help with this money, and he’s holding it hostage.’’

After four years of waiting for their son to ‘‘do the right thing’’, Gilmore’s parents took their claim to court in February, seeking $257,000 of the $500,000.

A Wellington apartment – worth between $400,000 and $500,000 – in Mulgrave St is listed under Gilmore’s name. He told the High Court he hoped to pay his parents back with the money from selling it. He added that he had another apartment that could also act as security for the loan.

Since February, the deadline for payment has been extended numerous times by the court.

His parents alleged Gilmore wanted more than the $500,000 they loaned him and ‘‘threw a tantrum’’ when they refused to go higher.

The ongoing financial dispute has seen Gilmore lose contact with all members of his parents’ family.

His youngest daughter, aged 3, had not met her grandparents.

‘‘We want to move on. We need him to apologise and pay us back,’’ Kay Gilmore said.

‘‘He can do that (run for local council), but he needs to pay his bills first ... He’s running away from his problems. You have to be a big boy and own up. You can’t have your cake and eat it too.’’

In a statement to Stuff, Gilmore refuted that he owed his parents money, and said the dispute was over a family trust ‘‘set up by me for the long-term benefit of their grandchildren’’.

‘‘There is not close to $500,000 due . . . Unlike my parents, I trust the court process to resolve the disputed aspects, after my parents refused to undertake arbitration, also in breach of the agreement.

‘‘Neither my wife nor I own any property ourselves.’’

It’s not Gilmore’s first moneyrelated dispute. Last year, Gilmore’s $260,000 claim against his landlord backfired with him being ordered to fork out $11,000 in costs, with a judge calling his claim ‘‘wholly unmeritorious.’’