Where’s Nathan Tinkler? Ex-lawyer hunts for former billionaire who ‘failed to pay’

Former coal billionaire Nathan Tinkler is being chased by his ex-lawyer for $175,000 in unpaid legal fees, court documents state.

Has anyone seen Nathan Tinkler?

The former coal billionaire is being chased by his former lawyer for $175,000 in unpaid legal fees, court documents state.

Lawyer Ben Cohen, the principal of Brisbane firm Barley Cohen, has told the District Court in Brisbane, that Mr Tinkler may be living on the Sunshine Coast, or on the NSW North Coast.

Mr Cohen, who has filed a claim for the debt against Mr Tinkler, alleging he is owed for his work in a lawsuit against Whitehaven Coal in the Supreme Court in NSW until January last year.

Mr Cohen alleges that the sum was agreed to by Mr Tinkler’s new lawyer, Stefan Briggs of Sydney firm SMB Law.

Nathan Tinkler. Picture: Britta Campion / The Australian

Mr Cohen states in court documents that he would like to talk to the 46-year-old but after nine months of searching, to serve the claim on him, he still can’t find him.

He has asked the court to rule that service of his claim on Mr Tinkler is “deemed effective”.

On Thursday Judge Ken Barlow handed down his ruling, however it was not given to Mr Cohen by time of deadline.

“The overwhelming inference is that the respondent is avoiding service,” Mr Cohen states in his written submissions.

Mr Cohen states in submissions filed on March 16 that he hired Kylie Hannigan at Sharmans Investigations to find Mr Tinkler’s current contact details and that she concluded that he lives “on the Sunshine Coast”.

The horse property on Mountain View Rd, Maleny.

Ms Hannigan’s report to Mr Cohen, filed in court, states that “discreet phone inquiries” were made to a mobile number believed to belong to Mr Tinkler’s wife Jodie, 40, who “confirmed she resides with Nathan Tinkler in the area of Alexandra Headland”.

The report also states that Mrs Tinkler was also linked in 2019 to an idyllic horse farm in Maleny, Montana Park, a luxury 41ha horse property.

This home, which used to be owned by a Brisbane bookie, has since been sold to a Brisbane car dealer, but in 2019 Mrs Tinkler changed her address on filings with the corporate regulator to the Maleny farm.

Nathan Tinkler house at Sapphire Beach Coffs Harbour NSW

Overall Mr Cohen submitted that the “weight of the evidence” strongly suggests Mr Tinkler lives at his sprawling $18 million oceanfront compound at Sapphire Beach, north of Coffs Harbour

Mr Cohen told Mr Briggs in an email on March 12 last year that Mr Tinkler had a history of not paying his debts.

“The real problem is, as always with Mr Tinkler, that he simply does not pay his debts and relies on people not pursuing him,” Mr Cohen wrote in the email.

“I intend to pursue your client for the legal fees he owes. I am not like the people he has not paid over more than 10 years,” Mr Cohen wrote in the email filed in the District Court.

In February the Federal Court dismissed a creditor’s petition worth $107,790.25 filed by Westvets Animal Hospitals against Mr Tinkler.

He was bankrupted in 2016 with debts of more than $540 million, but his bankruptcy was annulled in 2018.