23/10/2002 00:00
TW
0

The “Chase for Skase” ended when the former Australian tycoon died in Majorca 14 months ago, but the “Chase for a Skase” will end this morning. Skase's son-in-law Tony Larkins, the tycoon's right-hand-man for much of the ten years Skase spent in Majorca fighting extradition to Australia as well as emphysema and stomach cancer, will fly to Sydney from Thailand this morning and be arrested on arrival. Tony, wife Amanda and daughter Charlotte left Majorca in December with just under £5'000. The plan, he told the Bulletin, was to make the money last as long as possible in the Far East before heading to Australia and face the music for the sake of their daughter who would need education and health care. Amanda and Charlotte returned to Australia last month and are staying with family in Melbbourne and, after negotiations with the Australian authorities, Tony returns this morning. He will be issued with a warrant for failing to appear at a 2000 Federal Court bankruptcy hearing into Christopher Skase's financial position. “He will be arrested,” a police spokesman said. “He will be taken to the bankruptcy court. We are arresting (him) in relation to his non–appearance in relation to a bankruptcy.” Larkins, Skase's one-time business manager, says he is destitute and relying on the charity of newly found friends in Thailand. He said he and his wife Amanda, Pixie Skase's daughter, and their daughter, Charlotte, were left with nothing when Skase died from stomach cancer in August last year. “I have been living on the floor at the house of a Thai family I met only months ago,” he said. Ironically, since Skase's death, Amanda has fallen out with Pixie and she and Tony are considering suing her. Larkins maintains that Pixie, who lives in London with another daughter, has been living off a million-dollar life insurance policy taken out on Skase before his death, but Amanda and Pixie's grand-daughter have not received a penny. “They've been treated disgracefully” he said.