Free Choice tobacco founder Trevor Beynon sues stepson Candyman Travers Beynon
Notorious Gold Coast playboy Travers ‘Candyman’ Beynon is embroiled in a $55m legal stoush with his elderly stepfather in a dramatic blow-up which has torn the family apart.
Notorious Gold Coast playboy Travers ‘Candyman’ Beynon is embroiled in a $55m legal stoush with his elderly stepfather – co-founder of the Free Choice tobacco store empire – in a dramatic blow-up which has torn the family apart.
Trevor Beynon, 79, who was married to Travers’ mother Sandra when the couple founded Free Choice, is suing his stepson, 53, who he claims has used “sham” documents in an attempt to take greater control of the group’s assets, contrary to what the senior Beynon intended in his will.
As flagged in the Courier-Mail’s Citybeat column earlier this week, the senior Mr Beynon ceased being a director of two key Free Choice companies in March – and he has now claimed in court that Travers removed him against his will.
Trevor Beynon also alleges his stepson transferred his shares in five Free Choice companies to another company, solely controlled by Travers.
Documents lodged in the case, before the Supreme Court of Brisbane, say Sandra and Trevor Beynon met with Travers around 2007 to talk about what would happen to the tobacco store empire when they died and agreed Travers would take over – on the condition his siblings received a cut of profits from some of the businesses.
Around two years after Sandra Beynon died in 2015, Travers became worried his siblings would try to challenge him for more of the estate, the court filing said, so he enlisted lawyer Matthew Burgess to draw up documents to stop them.
Along with accountant Richard Hoult, Travers and Mr Burgess formulated “estate planning” documents which stated that Trevor would gift $55m to one of Travers’ companies, Free Choice Master Holdings, and then loan it back. They also drew up a deed that purported to secure the loan against Trevor Beynon’s assets.
The purpose of the documents was so, in the event of Trevor’s death, his secured debt to Free Choice Master Holdings would be so large there would be no funds left in the estate for the siblings to contest.
Fast-forward to January this year and, according to the court filings, Trevor and Travers had an explosive disagreement over how Free Choice was being managed – resulting in the younger man deciding to enforce interest repayments on the supposed $55m loan by his company to his stepdad.
In the court documents, Trevor Beynon claimed he’d never paid, nor received, the $55m and that it was a figure “made up” by the accountant.
He argued the documents had effectively moved his assets into the control of his stepson and would prevent his estate from paying genuine debts – or helping other family members in need – after he died.
Trevor claims he never signed documents to allow his shares in Free Choice companies to be transferred out of his ownership and that he was removed from the company directorships without the proper process.
He’s seeking that the court declare the $55m gift and loan be declared fake, and hence unenforceable, or alternatively that they are against public policy. Trevor Beynon is also seeking his reinstatement as a director of the companies and that his shares be returned to his ownership.
Travers Beynon is yet to file a defence. News Corp Australia has contacted his lawyer for comment.
Travers Beynon, formerly named Travers Martin-Beynon and also known for the past decade as “The Candyman”, gained global notoriety for himself and for Free Choice via his persona as an ultra-wealthy playboy with multiple wives and girlfriends.
In the past year, after his wife Taesha gave birth to his fifth child, he’s stepped back from the scandalous image, deleting his Instagram profile and websites and attempting to sell his sprawling Gold Coast Candy Shop Mansion.
Originally published as Free Choice tobacco founder Trevor Beynon sues stepson Candyman Travers Beynon
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