Email brag sinks banker who tried to ditch $7.5m deal over $171 fee

The “sky mansion” had been marketed as “the finest penthouse in Surfers Paradise”. Image: Realestate.com.au An ex banking boss pleading hardship to back out of a $7.5m deal after body corp rose by $171 a week, has been forced to buy the property with interest – after a boastful email sunk his defence. Former high-flying investment banker Peter Zhe Kuk and his wife Cindy had attempted to pull out on the eve of settlement from the purchase of a luxury “sky mansion”, claiming a body corporate levy increase had caused them “material prejudice” as self-funded retirees. Peter Kuk in a social post put up earlier. The judgment came down against him in Brisbane’s Supreme Court. Source: Facebook / Peter Kuk The couple claimed in the Supreme Court that they had no regular income with living expenses under strain because they were spending more than $200,000 a year sending their eldest daughter to university in London. They claimed that an $8,943.79-a-year rise in building levies – which lifted annual body corporate fees on the 39th-floor penthouse from $27,949 to $36,893 – justified ripping up the contract. But their plea of financial hardship came crashing down in Brisbane’s Supreme Court af...