Former pop princess Vanessa Amorosi can’t afford to pay out her mother without kicking her out of home and selling the property.
Amorosi’s mother Joyleen Robinson may have lost the ugly Supreme Court of Victoria battle to retain her ‘dream home’, but she is still owed $870,000 by her daughter in restitution – money the court heard she cannot afford to pay.
In 2001, when Amorosi was at the peak of her stardom, her tax return stated she earned $862,000 in a single year.
On Monday, Justice Steven Moore ruled Amorosi’s mother had 60 days to leave the Narre Warren North property she had lived in since 2001.
Nestled above a green hill on Boundary Road, the home in Melbourne’s south-east had been at the centre of the court battle amid claims Amorosi had gifted it to her mum during a kitchen chat sometime that same year.
The $870,000 owed to Ms Robinson was to repay $650,000 plus interest her mother had previously handed her in what she alleged was payment for the ‘dream home’.
The court heard Amorosi not only could not afford to pay the money, but could not even obtain a loan to pay the amount.
‘Ms Amorosi’s solicitor has deposed to Ms Amorosi’s instructions that she does not consider that she will be able to obtain a loan to fund the payment of the $650,000 amount plus interest and that instead she wishes to sell the Boundary Road property in order to realise the funds necessary to pay Mrs Robinson,’ Justice Moore said.
Vanessa Amorosi arrives at the Supreme Court of Victoria in October last year. She now claims she cannot get a loan to pay to have her mother removed from her ‘dream home’
Amorosi’s mother Joyleen Robinson (centre) must leave the home she considered was hers
‘She otherwise does not have the resources to make the payment without the sale of the Boundary Road property.’
The singer hit the big time in 1999 with the release of her debut single ‘Have a Look’, which reached gold status in Australia.
The following year, she achieved international success with her debut studio album, The Power.
Amorosi performed at both the 2000 Olympic Games’ opening and closing ceremonies in Sydney.
Her performance of ‘Heroes Live Forever’ at the opening ceremony gained international acclaim.
But it was her song ‘Absolutely Everybody’ that became an unofficial anthem of the games and went on to be a major hit in Australia and many European countries, including Britain and Germany.
Her combined album and single sales have surpassed two million worldwide.
Amorosi, who flew to Australia from her home in Los Angeles to attend last year’s trial, had become suspicious of her mother’s dealings with her fortune in 2014 when she engaged forensic accountants to start looking into her mother’s handling of her wealth.
Seven years later, she engaged lawyers, filing a 213-paragraph statement of claim with the Supreme Court.
Mediation between the parties saw that claim significantly reduced, with a dispute over the Narre Warren North property eventually resolved by Justice Moore.
Vanessa Amorosi hired barrister Philip Solomon KC (pictured) and a swag of other lawyers to fight her case
The Narre Warren North property Vanessa Amorosi must sell to pay off her mother and leave her homeless
The trial saw Amorosi forced into the witness box where she was grilled on her personal finances.
Ms Robinson’s barrister Daniel Harrison repeatedly put it to Amorosi that she had hit hard times, describing her financial situation as ‘poor’.
‘What I suggest to you is this: the reason that there’s a limited amount of money now in the Llama Trust is because what you were earning over the last approximately 20 years has been, over time, eaten up by what you’ve spent over the last 20 years, do you agree with that?’ he put to the star then.
‘I know that’s what my mum has insinuated, yes. I don’t agree,’ Amorosi replied.
‘And I suggest to you that your current poor financial circumstances … are not good, are they?’ Mr Harrison continued.
‘Why would you suggest that?’ Amorosi responded.
‘I disagree.’
‘I suggest to you that your current financial circumstances are why you are now saying that you have a claim over the Boundary Road property, do you agree with that?’ he continued.
‘I disagree,’ Amorosi said.
Mr Harrison had claimed Amorosi’s mum made a verbal agreement with her daughter in 2001 which would allow her to buy the Narre Warren site off her daughter for $650,000 at any time.
In the witness box, Ms Robinson too claimed her once famous daughter had financially struggled in the lean years that followed.
Joyleen Robinson arrives at court during the trial with her husband Peter (left) and daughters
Vanessa Amorosi’s last horse remains at the NArre Warren North property. It’s fate remains unknown
One year, Ms Robinson claimed her daughter was so poor she could not even afford to buy her child Christmas presents.
‘I love my daughter, I would give her anything so I gave her money because she needed it,’ Ms Robinson told the court.
‘It was a mother helping her daughter out that was financially in a bit of troubling, struggling. I know that she wanted to get some Christmas presents and that for her little son.’
Ms Robinson, who transferred her daughter $25,000 then, claimed her daughter had confided in her about her money problems.
‘She virtually told me that, she needed money,’ she told the court.
The court heard Amorosi was also forced out of her original home in the United States over rising costs.
‘Vanessa informed me through her business manager in America that she could not afford to stay there because of all the extra fees and the fire insurance and all the bills that were building up with that property,’ Ms Robinson claimed.
Vanessa Amorosi continues to tour and perform. She is pictured at a 2023 pride event in Sydney
With the case now effectively closed, a new battle looms over who will be made to foot the massive legal bill Amorosi incurred to run the case.
In addition to losing her home, Ms Robinson fears the $870,000 in restitution her daughter has been ordered to pay her will amount to little should she be ordered to pay her legal costs.
Amorosi had employed a team of lawyers, including an expensive King’s Counsel – a senior court lawyer.
‘That’s my worry now because I’m waiting to see if I’ve got to pay half or all of her expenses. They haven’t worked that out yet,’ Ms Robinson said.
‘Every time we’ve gone to court she’s paid a King’s Counsel, a barrister, a junior barrister, her lawyer. Silly me goes with one barrister.’
Ms Robinson said bills from lawyers have continued to come in the mail months after the trial ended.
‘I’ll go pretty close to bankrupt,’ she said.
The battle has been scheduled to take place at the Supreme Court of Victoria next month.
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