"The physical risk I‘ve taken on to keep surfing
was a choice I made because I was not financially in the position
to stop my career.”
The surf Olympian Owen Wright has told a courtroom the
theft of almost one million bucks of his personal stash by a family
friend employed as the fam’s bookkeeper led to his estrangement
from Ma and Pa Wright as well as friction with his
siblings and his pop star wife.
In a victim impact statement read to court prior to the
sentencing of horse racing aficionado and poker
machine enthusiast Shane Maree Hatton, who copped five years at the
top with a three-year non-parole period, Owen said he
accused family members of stealing and even told his wife,
accomplished songstress Kita
Alexander, to lay off the spending.
Owen said he was “emotionally worn down”, couldn’t sleep, was
perpetually pissed off and anxious. Accusing his parents of ripping
him off had lasting ramifications.
“My relationships…are still damaged because of the anger issues
I had around this,” he said.
And, because of the theft, he couldn’t get out of the pro
surfing game despite his catastrophic 2015 brain injury.
“I wanted to retire but I couldn‘t financially (due to the
impact of the offending) and fought back into my career risking my
life in the process… I was still being stolen from while I
could barely walk and while the doctors were saying I would never
work again in my career. The physical risk I‘ve taken on to
keep surfing was a choice I made because I was not financially in
the position to stop my career.”
Owen told the court he’d been saving for a family home and
trying to set up a retirement fund, two enterprises stymied by the
theft, although regular BeachGrit readers will remember the $5.1
million beach shack O bought in Byron Bay three years ago, which he
later developed into four luxury villas, selling one for $6.5 mill,
another of which he kept,
the $1.6 million house at Lennox Head with its indoor
swimming pool that meandered through the living room,
the Federation-style house in Byron Bay (sold for a little
under a million),
the beachfront townhouse at Thirroul (675,000)
and
the gorgeous mountain-top hideaway (bought for 750k, sold
for a million).
Everyone’s version of a happy retirement is different, I
think.
Owen’s ma, Fiona, said she felt “somehow responsible” for the
theft ‘cause she recommended Hatton to run the books.
“Her stealing from us was a heartbreaking despicable act,” she
said.
