Casey awarded $960,000

Mr Casey (pictured) had planned to buy land near Ballarat to develop a retirement village, but the Victorian Supreme Court heard that he did not complete the proposed acquisition in February.

In a decision yesterday, Justice James Judd noted Mr Casey had given evidence he was impecunious and his Casey Group was in financial distress as a result of defaulting on its $50 million loan from National Australia Bank.

Mr Casey and his wife, Leslie, sold their Shakespeare Grove mansion for more than $20 million last year and the court heard about $15 million went to pay down the Casey Group's NAB loan.

But Justice Judd said that while the Casey family and the Casey Group were "experiencing some financial distress", he was "by no means satisfied" the difficulties were a good enough reason not to order him to complete the land purchase.

However, Justice Judd said he dealt with the issue only briefly because he had already found that real estate agent Andrew Lewis had misled Mr Casey.

Mr Lewis made a "false" statement that there was another bidder for the land, Justice Judd said. "There was in fact no other purchaser."

Mr Casey was awarded $960,000, plus interest. BEN BUTLER