Clive Mensink demands business-class flights to attend court

Clive Mensink has demanded taxpayers shell out for business-class flights for him to return to Australia to face court.

Clive Mensink was described as “a larger than average fellow”.

Clive Mensink has demanded taxpayers shell out $50,000 for business-class flights from ­Europe, food and other expenses to return to Australia to be grilled about Queensland Nickel because he’s too big for cattle class.

Federal Court judge John Dowsett yesterday instead ordered government-funded liqui­dators to pay $5000 for economy seats, meals and Brisbane hotel accommodation — and warned Mr Mensink he would be hit with an arrest warrant if he didn’t come back in one month.

“Immigration will have (the warrant), the federal police will have it, the local police will have it and if he turns up, he’ll be ­arrested,” Justice Dowsett said.

The hearing descended into a detailed analysis of Mr Mensink’s large frame and the difficulty he would have in squeezing into an economy-class seat.

“Mr Mensink is a larger than the average fellow,” Mr Mensink’s barrister, Alex Nelson, told Justice Dowsett, pressing for a ­business-class seat back from ­Europe.

Barrister David de Jersey, for special purpose liquidator PPB Advisory, suggested Mr Mensink could be booked into an exit-row seat or bulk-head seat in economy, arguing that taxpayers should not foot the bill for the more ­spacious option.

When Mr Nelson pressed the point, claiming it would be “much to the chagrin” of fellow economy-class passengers should Mr Mensink be relegated, Justice Dowsett shut it down.

“He did go overseas knowing that people wanted to cross-examine him,” he said. “I am not going to make it business class but if he wants to upgrade himself, that’s another matter.”

Clive Palmer’s nephew has shirked two summonses ordering he cut short his year-long overseas holiday to be cross-examined about the corporate collapse, which left 800 workers jobless and cost creditors $300 million.

He left Australia in June and flew to Hong Kong, and has since been on at least three luxury cruises in both hemispheres. He is believed to be heading to The Netherlands to visit his late ­father’s elderly relatives.

“He’s going on boat trips around the fjords of Norway, which I believe is very boring,” Justice Dowsett joked about Mr Mensink’s extensive itinerary.

An affidavit sworn by Mr Mensink — the sole director of Queensland Nickel at the time of its failure — said the trip couldn’t be finished early because he had promised his post-divorce new girlfriend that nothing would ­“interfere” with their bonding.

“The thought of my personal relationship being damaged at this critical time of my life, following my recent divorce, distresses me greatly and is causing me mental anguish and pain which I find unbearable,” he said.

He also produced a medical certificate from the Boston Medical Centre, claiming he was suffering from clinical depression and major anxiety.

His lawyers argued that while his mental health condition did not stop him from cruising the world, it did prevent him from being cross-examined in Brisbane — until August, when his trip is scheduled to have ­finished.

Mr Mensink has been ordered to front the Federal Court in Brisbane on March 27. If he does not show, he will have to prove why an arrest warrant should not be immediately issued.