Peter Dawson, Chris Dawson’s brother, loses court challenge over property developer’s $13m estate

The case centred on the validity of an ‘informal will’ found on the phone of a wealthy Sydney property developer.

Peter Dawson, the brother of convicted wife killer Christopher Michael Dawson. Picture: Gaye Gerard/NCA Newswire

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The brother of convicted murderer Chris Dawson has lost a court dispute over the validity of an “informal will” found on the Notes app of a wealthy Sydney property developer’s phone, which would have resulted in him pocketing more than $300,000.

The Supreme Court action, launched by the late developer Colin Peek’s brother, Ronald, contested the finality of the note titled the “Last Will of Colin L Peek”, which allocated the majority of his $13m estate to real estate agent Brad Wheatley, a close friend of Peek.

Peter Dawson, a Dural lawyer who had assisted Peek with hundreds of legal matters over 25 years, represented Mr Wheatley in his challenge to have the informal will honoured.

The note, discovered by the pair three days after the developer’s death while searching the property for any original wills or other legal documents, would have distributed $10m to Mr Wheatley and only $990,000 to Ronald Peek.

The court ultimately found in favour of the property developer’s brother, meaning under NSW succession laws Ronald would be entitled to the entire estate, as Colin had died without a will and was not survived by his wife, son or parents.

Peter Dawson outside court after the sentencing of his brother. Chris Dawson was found guilty of murdering his wife, Lynette Simms, and was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Britta Campion/The Australian

“I am not satisfied that Colin intended the note, without more on his part, to have present operation as his will,” Justice Mark Richmond said.

In his judgment, Justice Richmond pointed to Peter Dawson’s “conflict of interest” acting as a solicitor in the proceedings while also having a significant financial interest in the final outcome.

“There is a difficulty in the court accepting the reliability of the evidence of Mr Dawson when he acted as a solicitor in the proceedings and prepared all the evidence for the defendant despite his conflict of interest and duty to the court,” the judge said.

He also pointed to text messages and emails deleted from Peek’s phone while “in the possession of either Mr Dawson or Mr Wheatley”, which raised concerns “about the integrity of the main piece of evidence”.

“The court cannot be confident that it has all the relevant communications by the deceased with Mr Dawson and Mr Wheatley regarding the purpose of the note,” he said.

A screenshot of the informal will at the centre of the dispute. Picture: Supplied

Mr Dawson is the older brother of Chris Dawson, who was found guilty in the NSW Supreme Court of murdering wife Lynette Simms more than 40 years ago, after The Australian’s 2018 podcast The Teacher’s Pet ignited global interest in the ­cold case.

As per the note created on August 5, Peek’s cleaner and friend, Judy Jones, would get $50,000; Ronald Peek would get 15 per cent; two other friends would get 5 per cent; Mr Dawson would get 5 per cent for “the handling of CP (Colin Peek) will”; and Mr Wheatley would get the “remaining balance of the accounts”.

That would have meant Mr Dawson would get $308,425 and Mr Wheatley would stand to collect more than $10.3m.

The note itself was written a day after the wealthy property developer had an acute medical episode during which paramedics were called to his home. He died 12 days later.

Upon assessment of the evidence, the judge could not be satisfied Colin Peek intended the note to be his final will rather than an unfinished working document.