The Sell: AFP’s legal hold on Sydney manor after sale attempt
A magnificent seven-bedroom, five-bathroom manor with tennis court and pool in Sydney’s rural northwest was briefly listed for auction in May before being suddenly withdrawn after the AFP registered a restraining caveat on it. Read why in The Sell.
NSW
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The Australian Federal Police (AFP) Criminal Assets Confiscation Taskforce has registered a restraining caveat this week over the title of the Dural abode of pharmacist Ben Huynh.
It lobbed just days after the seven-bedroom, five-bathroom house with tennis court and pool was briefly listed by McGrath West agents Peter Pokorny and Elise Lau for June auction.
Their marketing, which has now been removed from listing sites, advised it was “an excellent opportunity to buy an expansive two-hectare estate in a tightly held enclave.”
The AFP caveat arose from orders made May 22 by the NSW Supreme Court.
It was the first time the AFP had lodged a caveat since the late 2023 arrest of the veteran pharmacist arising from allegations he had engaged in fraud since 2014 relating to the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.
Police allege the pharmacist submitted false claims for medications.
Huynh, who for 26 years operated the Cabramatta East Day and Night Pharmacy, was released on bail after his arrest and is scheduled to next appear before court on June 6.
Huynh is yet to enter pleas.
His wife, Le Thach, is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The title of his Dural abode, Stonelea Manor is no longer in his name, being transferred last November from joint ownership to the sole ownership of his wife.
Documents from the NSW Land Registry show it was transferred “without monetary consideration and as regards a court order”.
Huynh and Thach had briefly mortgaged the property in March last year with a $5.87m N1 Holdings mortgage facility for a one-year period, at a rate of 12.5 per cent.
The mortgage was discharged as she took sole ownership, with the property refinanced through Orde Mortgage Custodian. It cost $1.91m in 2001.
The Saturday Telegraph’s Shannon Tonkin reported last week that Huynh had lost a legal bid to have federal police return his multimillion-dollar collection of eight supercars seized during the police raid in November 2023
Star’s sun-filled Potts Point apartment on market
Actor Belinda McClory is selling her Potts Point investment apartment which sits on the fifth level of the 1920s Wintergarden complex.
The 73sq m apartment, with windows facing north, east and west, captures Harbour Bridge and Opera House views.
“It offers maximum natural light throughout the day,” the marketing advises.
The two-bedroom, one bathroom apartment with sunroom is in the building designed in the Chicago skyscraper style by John Burcham Clamp.
McClory, who now calls St Kilda home, lived in the apartment on Darlinghurst Rd with her husband, film director Jon Hewitt. They moved to Melbourne in 2012 after she toured Europe with Cate Blanchett doing Gross And Klein for the Sydney Theatre Company.
Local agent Nuri Shik had sold the apartment in 2000 for $230,000, shortly after McClory had appeared in the first Matrix film in 1999. She is especially known for her 34 episodes on the The Doctor Blake Mysteries on the ABC, having started her career on A Country Practice and The Flying Doctors in the early 1990s.
The apartment, which has a $1.2m guide for its June 24 scheduled auction, saw 22 parties through during Saturday’s first open for inspection.
It is an unrestricted company title apartment which could be a $1000 plus a week rental after any update to its kitchen and bathroom, said Shik from the Elizabeth Bay office of Ray White The Woollahra Group (TWG).
By July, Shik will be at the BresicWhitney agency after its pending acquisition of TWG. BresicWhitney has confirmed its acquisition, advising it was “a significant move that delivers leading market share,” with Randall Kemp, the TWG founder, joining BresicWhitney as a shareholder.
The acquisition will assist BresicWhitney’s projected sales volumes “over time”, to more than $3bn annually, up from the $2.5bn in 2024, and see its management portfolio exceed more than 5000 properties, up from 3000 plus.
“It’s a milestone in our 20-year history and our legacy, while signifying our clear focus and long-term vision as Sydney’s leading property group,” said BresicWhitney chief executive Thomas McGlynn.
Edwardian mansion with harbour views
Online retailers Josh Penn and his husband Ben Palmer have listed Capri, their Edwardian Point Piper mansion with $28m price guidance.
It was purchased for $16m in 2021 when bought from nursing-home scion Mark Moran and his interior decorator wife Evette who had originally sought $18m when it first hit the market in 2019.
Capturing harbour views from its elevated 723 sqm Wyuna Road parcel, the historic home had traded in 2005 for $6.1m.
Located on the site of the original Point Piper quarry, the four-bedroom five-bathroom residence is built from convict bricks and sandstone blocks.
The 1905 home was built for shipwright Alfred Whetton, whose family constructed Circular Quay’s first wharves.
It comes with an internal lift.
There are balconies, a verandah, triple garaging plus manicured grounds with a pool.
It has been listed by Monika Tu and Jad Khattar of Black Diamondz, who recently opened their estate agency in the former Double Bay outlet of the now-online ́only Palmer & Penn luxury homewares outfit.
The Transvaal Ave retail premises were bought for $6.65m from David and Linda Penn.
Meanwhile Maree Conley, from Conley + Co interiors which also once operated out of neighbouring Transvaal Ave premises, has accepted $8.6m for her Bellevue Hill apartment. The four-bedroom Drumalbyn Road abode had initial $11.5m guidance last December through Sotheby’s.
Carr’s failed attempt in court
Former National Farmers Federation director David Carr has lost his legal battle in the NSW Court of Appeal that arose after a falling-out with his rural pastoralist partner, expatriate former investment banker Ivan Ritossa (above right).
The equity division judgment after an eight day 2024 trial before Justice Mark Richmond was upheld last month by the full court.
Carr had sought to wind up their Darbalara Property Trust (DPT), a joint rural property investment trust which acquired The Junction at Darbalara, near Gundagai, for $7.5m and then Bogolara, at Berremangra, for $5.4m after being set up in 2010.
The partners fell principally over the best farming strategy to deal with the 2019 drought and the $23,500 weekly cost of the feed cost.
“We are long stock, short feed and short cash,” the multimillionaire Ritossa wrote.
The court heard Ritossa’s evolving view that stock levels should be decreased had come after discussions with other land owners in the district, including Messrs MacLeod, Schwarzenbach and Crozier.
By March 2020, the drought broke, but so had the Carr-Ritossa relationship following a “dramatic” breakfast meeting fallout.
For the purposes of the trial, The Junction was valued at $36.6m, and Bogolara at $15.9m, but with a discounting of anywhere between 5 per cent to 40 per cent for a half share sale given it would not come with voting control.
Carr and wife Ros endeavoured to bring the trust to an end, while Ritossa and his wife, Marina, argued that the Carrs were free to sell their stake. The Carrs contended the deadlock constituted oppressive conduct and sought orders for the winding up of the arrangement.
But the appeal application before Justices Leeming, Stern JA and Griffiths failed. Costs were awarded to Ritossa who had Arnold Bloch Leibler brief Peter Wood assisted by Tom O’Brien.
Carr and Ritossa met in 1987 at Bankers Trust.
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Originally published as The Sell: AFP’s legal hold on Sydney manor after sale attempt
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