Missing gold and silver bullion at centre of feud

Days after John Atkinson’s death, his daughter removed gold and silver bullion from a safe in one of his properties.

Four years later, Claire Martin has still not disclosed the whereabouts of the missing bullion.

Now, after an application by her brother Paul and her father’s former partner Mary Jo Cain, a judge has fired her as a trustee from a family trust, citing a “loss of trust and confidence”.

In the High Court at Nelson, Justice Isac heard the background to a family feud sparked by a property dispute, unauthorised payments and missing bullion.

The late John Atkinson had a “lifelong passion for the legend of King Arthur”, the judgment said. With his partner, Cain, Atkinson would travel the United Kingdom “searching for Camelot”.

Atkinson also collected gold and silver coins, and by the time he died he had “significant” amounts of gold and silver bullion. In 2012, he had established the Tolemac Trust to benefit Cain and his four children Claire, David, Paul and Mark.

He had several properties, some of which had nicknames relating to his favourite myth: Camelot West, Camelot City Retreat, Camelot Island Retreat and Camelot Country Retreat.

In a trust memorandum, Atkinson stated he wanted his three Nelson-based properties to be left to Cain, Claire and Paul. Mark had already received a property in California, and David had been left a flat in the UK.

Atkinson died in July 2019. Six days later, Claire appointed herself a trustee, using a power of appointment left to her under her father’s will. A few days later, Claire visited Atkinson’s Best Island property and removed the gold and half the silver from a safe. According to her evidence, she deposited this in a vault in Auckland.

While a disagreement over the division of some of Atkinson’s assets was resolved, the matter of the remaining bullion was not.

Despite questions from Cain and Paul, they were unable to discover either the whereabouts or value of the gold and silver bullion Claire had removed from the safe.

They also discovered the remaining silver bullion had been removed from the safe and sold, the proceeds used to pay the trust’s legal fees and make what Paul and Cain considered to be an unauthorised $24,000 payment to Claire.

Paul and Cain appealed to the High Court to have Claire removed as a trustee.

Justice Isac agreed, saying that Claire had acted “inconsistently” with the terms of the trust deed: signing over money to herself, selling some of the bullion and removing a “significant” proportion of the bullion to an undisclosed location.

“Claire should have had no part in the decision to make a distribution to herself,” the judge said.

An email Claire sent to the beneficiaries suggested “she deposited bullion earmarked for her own benefit and her brother David with an undisclosed agent somewhere in Auckland”.

While Claire’s lawyer submitted that the bullion was in “safe custody”, and the $24,000 payment had been returned, the judge said there was a “loss of trust and confidence”.

“Given the high level of distrust which now exists, there is a strong likelihood of further litigation and wasted costs,” the judge said.

The judge gave the parties 10 days to appoint new trustees, or to appoint the Public Trust as trustee.