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Luxury goods brand Hermes’ managing director Karin Upton Baker will face court this week after failing to repay more than $18 million in loan repayments.
In December 2006 Ms Upton Baker borrowed $5.8 million secured against her Elizabeth bay apartment and in June 2007, she borrowed $11.3 million against four apartments overlooking Bondi Beach.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Ms Upton Baker, who is reported to earn $360,000 a year, will argue in court that the mortgages should be set aside because they are unjust.
Ms Upton Baker says that she was at a ''special disadvantage'' because she was pressured by her husband into signing the loans and did not earn enough to repay them. She also admitted she did not read the terms and conditions of her mortgages and that she falsely declared she had received financial and legal advice before she took out the loans.
Her lawyers will ask the court to order that she does not have to repay the loans or, if this is not possible, order that the lenders can recoup only their loan from the sale of the Bondi properties and cannot claw back more than this if the sales do not reach $11.3 million.
Ms Upton Baker has failed to make any repayments on her loans since July last year.
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