Scott Hookey, bankrupt until 2031 and turfed from his country club, is mounting legal challenges

Five years ago, Scott Hookey was on top of the world, with a collection of expensive supercars, beautiful homes, membership at an exclusive country club and a commercial property portfolio churning out low-effort cash. Now it’s all gone.

Five years ago, Scott Hookey was on top of the world, with a collection of expensive supercars, beautiful homes, membership at an exclusive country club and a commercial property portfolio which was churning out low-effort cash.

Now the former first-class cricketer in both NSW and Tasmania - before he relocated to the Gold Coast - is banned from the swanky club, bankrupt until 2031 with debts above $10m and plotting multiple legal challenges as he looks to start fresh in a building company directed by his wife.

“I was a very successful man. I was worth $50 million,” he said.

“I’ve just been smashed from pillar to post.”

Scott and Lisa Hookey with a private jet.

On top of his financial issues, Mr Hookey said he’d copped a lifetime ban from Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club, where he’d been a member almost 20 years, over an altercation involving his former friend John Whitelaw in 2019.

The incident occurred as the men were locked in a bitter legal dispute over a childcare centre at Hope Island.

In a statement to police, seen by the Bulletin, Mr Whitelaw said he was “hit from behind in the left back and shoulder” by Mr Hookey, who was walking to the bathroom of the exclusive club.

When he returned, a “verbal altercation” between him and the group ensued.

Mr Hookey denied the allegation. A charge of assault was eventually dropped by police.

Footage from the club shows Mr Hookey walking through the crowded bar past Mr Whitelaw, who is standing next to a table where a group of men is seated.

After Mr Hookey walks past, the group of men can be seen gesturing in his direction and talking animatedly.

Still images captured from CCTV of an incident at Sanctuary Cove Golf and Country Club in 2019.

“The prosecutor told (the witnesses) to go home and dropped the charges the same day,” Mr Hookey said.

“I had to go to court and it cost me $20 (thousand) for a barrister - they all said I elbowed him in the shoulder blade.”

The club punted Mr Hookey from the club anyway.

“I was run out of that place, right? All because of jealousy,” he said.

“I had 16 supercars, I had 10 Ferraris, and I used to go down there and park, get all my mates, and we’d go for a drive.

“(The club members), they just got sick of me, because when I got there, I was a small fish in a big pond, and now I become the big fish, and they just get jealous.”

Scott and Lisa Hookey.

The club did not repond to multiple calls and emails from the Bulletin. Mr Whitelaw could not be contacted.

Mr Hookey and his wife Lisa made headlines after selling their Sanctuary Cove home - notable for a Ferrari-red bar and a bathtub shaped like a giant stiletto shoe - for $5.85 million in 2020.

Ms Hookey was back in the news this year over a vast beachfront Palm Beach penthouse she lost to a mortgagee in March.

It sold for $6m in August — more than $3m less than the couple originally sought before it was seized by the mortgagee.

But the fancy homes, car collection and long lunches at the club are now in the rearview.

Scott Hookey with his wife Lisa when they were selling their Sanctuary Cove mansion. Picture: Jerad Williams

Mr Hookey’s fall from the top appeared to have bottomed out last year, when a debt to a Logan electrical company, with Mr Whitelaw as supporting creditor, saw him enter a bankruptcy that was due to end in 2026.

Documents lodged with the Australian Financial Security Authority reveal Mr Hookey owed $8.4m to the tax office, as well as another $1.8m to three Sanctuary Cove golfers: $800,000 to Alan Mercer; $600,000 to Graham Stanton; and $400,000 to Marshall Lee.

Another $30,000 is owed to Westpac, leaving the total of Mr Hookey’s debts at $10.23m, according to the AFSA document.

Trustee David Brushe, of BDO, successfully applied to extend the bankruptcy to June 2031 because “the bankrupt failed to pay to the trustee an amount that the bankrupt was liable to pay”.

Mr Hookey said he was working to have the bankruptcy trustee replaced and the lengthy bankruptcy annulled.

Mr Brushe said he would consider “any reasonable proposal received from Mr Hookey’s advisers to annul his bankruptcy”.

“Mr Hookey’s financial affairs are complex,” he said.

“To date, I have obtained evidence from Mr Hookey, various third parties and through public examinations. Investigations are ongoing.”

Scott Hookey during his NSW playing days.

In the meantime, Mr Hookey is working for his wife, who is sole director and shareholder of Hookey Group International.

The company operates businesses including NextG Construction and Kings Factory Direct, selling building supplies and manufacturing prefabricated homes from a base at Arundel.

Mr Hookey, once a top-order batsman for NSW and Tasmania in the Sheffield Shield, said his financial problems could be traced back to the legal battle with Mr Whitelaw.

The pair were both involved with The Kids Academy Hope Island, a childcare centre which abruptly shut in June 2020 after a two-year stoush between centre operator Mr Hookey and landlord Mr Whitelaw.

The Supreme Court decision found Mr Hookey defaulted on a $524,389 payment to a Whitelaw entity via a bank guarantee. Mr Hookey said he had been unable to appeal the court decision.

Scott Hookey and John Whitelaw at the childcare centre at Hope Island before they fell out

Mr Hookey said he was now planning a $100m court action against Westpac, alleging the bank had sold him an unsuitable loan product.

“What they’ve done is horrific, I will win and make that $100m court case.”

Westpac declined to comment.

Mr Hookey said others had taken advantage of his generosity and trust.

“I always want to please people so I never let anybody down,” he said.

“The last thing I’d ever do was steal anything. And it’s that generosity that f***ed me up.

“If I was in somebody’s company, they never paid for a drink, they never paid for a meal, right? I’m that guy.”