Neil Brooks

After years of delays former Olympic swimmer Neil Brooks and his wife Linda Brooks finally arrived in Brisbane to face fraud charges following orders from a ...

But in evidence today Melcheck said he was told Brooks had conquered his demons and wouldn't be the face of the business. Melcheck told the court he had concerns about doing business with Brooks because of his publicised battle with alcohol, which is something Brooks confessed to A Current Affair 22 years ago. "All I'd like to do is let the courts address the matter and we deal with it from that," he said outside court after giving evidence. But before he made those allegations to police, the lawyer representing the Brookses claimed in court today that Melcheck hired two bikies to assault Brooks in a Gold Coast carpark in 2010. But after appearing in court they were allowed to keep their passports and leave the country again, at the time promising to return. Under cross examination, Melcheck said the two men were debt collectors, and he responded to barrister Christopher Walker's claims saying he "didn't know" they were bikies and "they were referred" to him. Today the court heard the business collapsed within six months and that Melcheck went to police eight years later alleging fraud. Police allege in February 2008 that Brooks and his wife fraudulently induced Melcheck to invest more than $1.95 million in the business run by the Brookses. "This has been 14 years that we've been waiting to finally tell our side of the story in a court of law." The Brookses allegedly misrepresented the value and success of the business. "The personal toll to me and my family is absolutely devastating," he previously told A Current Affair. "I'm really confident once people see the evidence and the facts that are going to be rolled out today with our legal team that I'll be cleared of all these charges," Brooks told the media outside court.

Former Olympic swimming champion Neil Brooks has broken his silence on a five-year criminal investigation into an almost $2 million dollar business deal ...

I’m not going to run away from this,” he told 7NEWS. “We’ve kept everything. “I’ve never had my say,” he said, “I’ve been charged and arrested but never been interviewed.” “I’ve got a child that was born into it, he doesn’t know what it’s like not to have this in his life.” Brooks says he knows who is to blame, and will produce “boxes of evidence” in court to prove his innocence. “It was never a question of us not coming here to fight it because we’ve got so much to fight with and so much to fight for...

Bikies allegedly bashed Olympic gold medallist Neil Brooks after a failed $2 million business deal, saying "you're a...

that I'll be clear of all these charges." Mr Wilson said in 2012 Mr Melcheck then spoke to Nine Network - who later did a story on the fraud allegations - in a bid to get the media to "hound" Brooks. But Mr Melcheck said he was there simply to see if Brooks would sign the forms that would authorise the withdrawal of the existing funds in the company's account - $72,000. Mr Melcheck said he had hired the men from a debt collection agency and travelled with them to see Brooks. Mr Wilson said Brooks had blood on his clothes and the withdrawal slips that the men demanded he sign. At the hearing Mr Wilson said Brooks was punched in the face and knocked to the ground by two hired bikies as he got out of his car in September 2010.