Michael Adamson sued by former mother-in-law Maree Alexanderson for allegedly failing to pay back $200,000 loan

A leading Gold Coast lawyer is embroiled in a dispute with his ex wife’s family over a $200,000 loan and alleged $10,000-a-month horse-breeding bonanza.

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A TOP Gold Coast legal eagle, who was wrapped up in the liquidation of a high-profile finance company, is being sued by his former mother-in-law for allegedly failing to pay back $200,000 she says she loaned him to start a new law firm.

However, Michael Adamson claims the money was a gift to help save the family from a “financial disaster” created by his ex wife’s health issues and her $10,000-a-month “wanton spending” on a horse breeding operation.

Documents tendered to the Southport District Court reveal a bitter falling out between Mr Adamson and the family of his former wife Petea, 49, who he’d known since they were high school classmates in 1987.

According to a statement of claim filed in the District Court in February this year, Mr Adamson entered into a loan agreement on November 24, 2017 with Maree Alexanderson, 78, the mother of Mr Adamson’s estranged wife, for $100,000.

The loan was due to be repaid by November 23, 2020.

A second loan was agreed in December 2017 for another $100,000 to be repaid by December 2020.

Ms Alexanderson claims the loans were not repaid by their due dates and is seeking $200,000, plus interest, from Mr Adamson.

Neither Mr Adamson nor Ms Alexanderson would comment for this story.

Michael Adamson at the Frigo Adamson office in Robina.

Mr Adamson is a director of Robina-based Frigo Adamson Legal Services, a business registered in October 2017 and specialising in commercial, family, criminal, property and succession law and litigation.

A month earlier, he had quit his job as CEO of Anne Street Partners, a high-profile investment firm with ties to conservative British billionaire Lord Michael Ashcroft, which subsequently went into liquidation.

Mr Adamson, 49, said he was owed $1.1 million in employee entitlements by the company, which entered a deed of company arrangement, leaving him out of pocket.

According to the documents tendered to the court, Mr Adamson and his ex-wife were high school sweethearts, meeting while the pair were both in Year 10, and marrying in 1995 after he’d completed his law studies. They separated in October 2018 and have three children.

Mr Adamson’s former mother-in-law Maree Alexanderson.

In his affidavit, Mr Adamson said his then mother-in-law had gifted the couple $200,000 to help with general living expenses as his wife battled health issues.

He had run into financial difficulties after Anne Street Partners went into liquidation.

In his affidavit, Mr Adamson said his wife’s health problems had not improved despite multiple rehabilitation attempts, and that Ms Alexanderson was well aware of the issues.

In addition to the ongoing health challenges, Mr Adamson said his then-wife had been “depleting our family’s financial resources” by insisting they move to an acreage at Mudgeeraba and undertake a horse breeding operation.

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Mr Adamson’s affidavit alleged the operation was “financially a disaster”, that his ex, 49, was spending upwards of $10,000 a month on it and that she would lie to him about her spending.

He said his “independently wealthy” mother-in-law had offered the $200,000 as a partial advance on her daughter’s inheritance to help the family’s situation, funds he said were “clearly understood” as a gift, despite him signing a loan agreement.

Mr Adamson said, despite the loan agreement including a “loan period end date”, he had been verbally assured by Ms Alexanderson that it would “never have to be repaid in her lifetime”.

He said he understood the funds would be equalised as part of Ms Alexanderson’s estate once she had died.

Michael Adamson of Frigo Adamson.

Maree Alexanderson. Photo: Facebook

Documents tendered to the court reveal Mr Adamson’s former father-in-law Barry Alexanderson, who is separated from Maree Alexanderson, provided the couple with a further $350,000 towards buying the property at Mudgeeraba, on which there had not been a claim for repayment.

Ms Alexanderson’s court submission chronicles a very different version of events.

In her affidavit, the retiree said Mr Adamson, who she’d known since he was 15, had helped her with conveyancing for a home she sold at Ashmore around October 2017, so was aware she would have funds from the settlement by December that year.

In November 2017, Ms Alexanderson submitted that Mr Adamson showed her around a commercial office space at the Rocket in Robina, where he told her he hoped to launch his new practice.

During the tour, Ms Alexanderson said her son-in-law had told her he needed $200,000 for the fitout and asked whether she was in a position to lend it to him.

She told him she would have to draw $100,000 from her superannuation, and transfer the remaining $100,000 after the Ashmore property settled.

Ms Alexanderson said Mr Adamson had told her he expected to receive $700,000 in employee entitlements from his former employer.

Her affidavit said at the time she gave money to her son-in-law she believed it was for the purpose of fitting out the law firm and fully expected it to be repaid.

“If I had not expected that the monies were being loaned to the defendant, I would not have drafted the below loan agreements,” she said.

Ms Alexanderson submitted Mr Adamson had not repaid any of the money owed by the due dates.

Mr Adamson rejected Ms Alexanderson’s claims the funds she provided were used to launch his new legal firm, saying he worked four months out of his home office and ran the startup on “a shoestring budget” with the landlord paying for the fit-out once it moved to a commercial office space.

He said he had no record of meeting her at the Robina offices and the funds were used to pay horse and farm expenses, on mortgage repayments for the acreage property at Mudgeeraba and on daily living expenses.

Mr Adamson and his wife separated in 2018 and he took up with a new partner, Alison St Claire Crawford, a former colleague from Anne Street Partners, in 2019.

In his affidavit, he said his relationship with his ex-wife’s family deteriorated after Ms Crawford went to police with allegations of stalking by his ex-wife.

There was nothing in the court documents that confirms whether or not charges were laid over the allegations.

Shortly after, Mr Adamson said his ex mother-in-law sent an email demanding repayment of a loan.

Mr Adamson said his ex mother-in-law would never have requested repayment of the funds if he hadn’t separated from her daughter.

In an email tendered to the court, Mr Adamson told his former mother-in-law “if I did not walk out of this marriage to save myself (and my children), there would be no demand for the monies now”.

In her submission, Ms Alexanderson denied there was any conversation about the funds being accounted for via an equalisation of her estate, or of the family’s financial struggles.

She said there was no discussion of the funds “never being repaid in her lifetime” or of the $200,000 coming out of her daughter’s inheritance.

“I informed the defendant that my current financial status was adequate to fund my personal needs for three years, however, after the expiry of three years I would need the loans repaid to

finance my expected ageing requirements,” Ms Alexanderson submitted.

Mr Adamson filed a third affidavit, describing his former mother-in-law’s submission as “selective and self-serving” adding that it “ignored a long history of events, circumstances and discussions” surrounding the $200,000.

He described how close he had been to Ms Alexanderson, who had helped arrange his father’s funeral in 2017, and said he had performed many hours of unpaid legal work for her “because that is what families do to assist each other”.

Mr Adamson said his ex mother-in-law had known about his hopes to establish a new legal firm long before the alleged meeting at Robina and that he’d never told her he needed funding to get it off the ground.

The case remains open in the District Court.

Mr Adamson set up Frigo Adamson Legal Services, also known as Frigo Adamson Legal Group, with his childhood friend Ron Frigo in 2018.

The pair told the Bulletin in 2018 they were at a crossroad in their careers, seeking new challenges amid a changing legal and financial services landscape.

Mr Adamson was CEO at Anne Street Partners, where he worked for 13 years alongside chairman Shane Stone, a former Liberal Chief Minister of the Northern Territory and personal friend to billionaire British Lord Michael Ashcroft.

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