Nene King, former Woman's Day editor, allegedly defrauded by friend during mental health, drug battle.

By Karen Percy

Women’s magazine pioneer Nene King was allegedly defrauded of hundreds of thousands of dollars by a friend while she was very unhappy and had a drug problem, a court has been told.

Colin Hahne faces more than 30 charges of fraud and falsifying documents.

The court heard he became friends with Ms King, a former editor of New Idea and Woman’s Day, in March 2007 when she was using marijuana a lot following the death of her father and her husband, who had been taken by a shark a decade earlier.

“Rather than taking the advice I’d given thousands of women, I went off the rails,” she told a committal hearing in Melbourne’s County Court.

“I guess I tried to sabotage my own life. I really didn’t care.”

Ms King testified that when Hahne lived with her, from June 2007 to about June 2009, she paid all the bills, including buying him drugs.

“Because I had a lot of money in those days. I was … the richest woman in Australian publishing.”

She told the court she liked living with Hahne and his partner Larry Sutcliffe.

“To begin with it was really lovely … they really cared about me and looked after me.”

The court also heard about her mental health issues at the time, with Ms King saying “I was very ill”.

Credit cards bounced while in Las Vegas

Ms King said by mid-2009 she was hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt and was in danger of losing her Caulfield South home.

“That’s what Colin threatened me,” she said.

When taken through documents showing dozens of late night ATM withdrawals, she said “I never went out at night to go to the ATM to take out money, I just never did”.

She admitted that she had at times allowed Hahne and his partner to access her credit cards and bank accounts, but he did not have permission in these instances.

Prosecutor Damien Hannan: “Did they need to ask to use the card?”
Nene King: “No, which is as much my fault.”
Prosecutor Hannan: “Did you give authority?”
Ms King: “No.”

Hahne also allegedly refinanced Ms King’s home while she was on a trip to the United States in May 2009.

When shown a faxed document regarding the refinancing she said: “None of that is my writing. That is a forgery”.

Ms King told the court she called home after her credit card was refused at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

“My card kept bouncing so I called Colin. I shrieked and yelled and carried on … as I wanted to know why my card was bouncing,” she said.

“I ranted and raved and shouted ‘What have you done?’. I was so distressed.”

She told the court Hahne intercepted her mail to prevent her seeing bank statements.

King felt sorry for friend’s ‘sob story’

Ms King told the court she felt sorry for Hahne when they met because he was fighting a big legal case after more than a dozen of his companies went bust.

“He made out to be a financial wizard. Had I been sane, (him) losing 13 companies, I might have asked questions,” she said.

She also testified that she lent hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hahne’s parents to save their Wangaratta farm.

“The sob story was they would lose the farm.”

The hearing continues.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.