Matthew Perrin was a crying mess as he confessed to forgery, court hears

UPDATE: Former millionaire Billabong boss Matthew Perrin sat on the floor sobbing, cradling his head in his hands as he revealed his secret financial strife, a court has heard.

Former Billabong boss Matthew Perrin (centre) arrives for the start of his trial on Monday. Pic: AAP Image/Dan Peled

FORMER millionaire surfwear boss Matthew Perrin sat on the floor sobbing, cradling his head in his hands as he revealed his secret financial strife, a court has heard.

Matthew Perrin.

In his opening address to the jury Crown Prosecutor Glenn Cash said the dramatic confrontation occurred during a family meeting at the Perrin family’s luxury Gold Coast home on January 20, 2009.

Mr Cash said Perrin told his family “I’m going to jail, I’ve lost everything. I forged Nicole’s signature”.

“I’ve done a lot of bad things,” Perrin allegedly said at the crisis meeting with his wife Nicole, Matthew’s brothers, his China business partner, and Nicole’s father.

“I owe people a lot of money,” he allegedly said.

According to Mr Cash, Perrin told the group that he was being “chased for money” by investors from Adelaide and Melbourne who had put up cash for his failed Chinese business deal.

Perrin has pleaded not guilty to nine counts of forgery and three counts of fraud.

The court was told that Perrin pumped in $56 million of his fortune from surfwear retailer Billabong into the Chinese deal but it had soured and he was desperate for cash in 2008 so he borrowed a further $13.5 million secured against the family home on Cronin Island.

On the same day as the family crisis meeting, the court was told Perrin’s wife Nicole transferred $10 million into her bank account from her husband’s business account.

Mr Cash said Matthew Perrin had also allegedly made a second “confession” to forgery and fraud in a six-page letter he signed three months later in March 2009.

The letter allegedly states “I have forged her (Nicole’s) signature for the mortgage”.

“What more eloquent admission could you ask for”, Mr Cash said to the jury.

Mr Cash said Perrin gave the confession letter to his father-in-law in March 2009 under instructions that Nicole was to open it “if the (Commonwealth) bank tries to get the house”.

The house was owned solely by Nicole Perrin, now known as Nicole Bricknell.

Mr Cash told the jury that Perrin “very well knew in 2008 that he was not authorised” to sign for his wife on loan documents but he signed “dishonestly and with the intention to defraud” the bank.

Mr Cash said the forgeries allowed Perrin to increase a line of credit from his bank and get another loan by mortgaging his exclusive Gold Coast home on Cronin Island. In total the bank loaned Perrin a further $13.5 million.

Mr Perrin’s barrister Andrew Hoare urged the jury to not let the “enormous sums of money ... distract” them from a fair hearing of the evidence.

During today’s sitting, a Commonwealth Bank staffer personally assigned to look after Perrin’s finances told the court how he was wined and dined by the former high flyer and asked for an expensive gift.

Giving evidence on the opening day of Perrin’s fraud trial, banker Matthew Stephen Parker said he asked for a bottle of Penfolds Grange wine, worth at least $750, as a gift.

Mr Parker said the bottle of expensive wine and the fancy lunch was a reward for the speed of his work helping arrange an increase in Perrin’s line of credit with the bank in 2008.

“He asked me what I drank and I said ‘Grange’, and consequently he gave me a bottle of Grange,” Mr Parker told the jury.

Mr Parker told the jury that as a private banker he looks after the wealth of individuals worth at least $2.5 million or those who can prove they earn at least $250,000 a year.

Grange sells for between $749 a bottle for recent vintages to up to $35,000 a bottle for a 1957 vintage.

Mr Parker also said he went to lunch with Perrin at trendy eatery Omeros Brothers Seafood Restaurant in the Marina Mirage resort.

The jury was told that aside from investing in China, Perrin was involved in a surfboard business, a legal document company and part-owned a stake in Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

District Court Judge Julie Dick is hearing the case.

The trial continues.