Can someone please decipher this article?

[Brazen]

http://theage.domain.com.au/real-est...ml?from=smh_ft

I must be in stupid mode, I don't understand what this is saying. I think I understand the basic gist, just not the details.

Even the article title does not seem to fit what is happening to my dumb brain.

Three internet handshakes for some cliff-notes of what happened.

Toorak agent accused of fake bidding

Andrea Petrie
June 3, 2011 - 2:46PM
A TOORAK plastic surgeon had multiple people bidding on his behalf at the auction of two apartments located next door to his medical practice, despite telling the real estate agent - a relative of the vendors - he had no interested in buying it, a court has heard.

And Dr Chris Moss' skincare specialist wife, Andrea John, was yelling and screaming and had what was described in the County Court today as a "meltdown" after learning her husband had paid $2.7 million for the property.

The couple claim real estate agent, RT Edgar Toorak director Greg Herman, artificially inflated the price of the apartments by claiming another bidder had made a higher offer.

Dr Moss and his wife were concerned that if the apartments, being sold by Mr Herman's twin sister Kendra Abay and other relatives, were redeveloped to include a third storey, the privacy of high-profile celebrity clients would be invaded.

Mr Herman testified yesterday that Dr Moss and his wife told him they were not interested in buying the property.

But the agent of 30 years discovered after the Toorak Road property was passed in at auction on February 27, 2010, for $2.1 million by a man representing Dr Moss, that several of the bidders were in fact representing the couple.

The court heard the highest bidder's offer during post-auction negotiations of $2.4 million offer was rejected by the vendor.

Another bidder, also acting on the doctor's behalf, then asked to buy one of the properties and an agreed price of $1.25 million was reached.

The bidder then offered of $1.4 million for the other apartment, but the vendors wanted $2.8 million if they were to be sold separately.

Mr Herman said the bidder made a phone call to who he said was his partner and Dr Moss appeared. The doctor said he wanted to buy both apartments and offered $2.6 million, despite his earlier bidder offering $500,000 more. Dr Moss then agreed to pay $2.7 million, which the vendors accepted.

Mr Herman said while he was speaking to the vendors about one of the offers that had been made, a relative of one of the vendors, Stuart Fleetwood, made a verbal offer for $2.6 million, so when Dr Moss and his wife quizzed him about the offer, he had genuinely received one.

The court heard that when Andrea John arrived at the property, she was abusive, swearing and aggressive towards her husband and the agent and was "stomping" around the room.

"She said you are a stupid ********** plastic surgeon and you should have stuck to my plan," Mr Herman said.

"She looked like she was having a meltdown and she was screaming."

Mr Herman said Dr Moss, who was sitting in "stunned silence" as he endured five or six minutes of his wife's "absolute tirades", then asked him to "pacify my wife".

He said Ms John quizzed him about the other bidder, who he said had driven a silver Mercedes, and showed him a photo she had taken on her phone of another bidder at auction, wanting to know if he was their competition.

He said he plucked the name "Tom" out of his head "on a whim" and said the man in the photo "could have been him". As it turned out, the underbidder's name was in fact Tom. But Mr Herman said he was not referring to him and had been unable to disclose Mr Fleetwood's name, for privacy reasons.

Dr Moss, Ms John, the underbidder and the doctor's first bidder then approached Mr Herman as he put the sold sticker on the property and made allegations that he had artificially inflated the price.

Mr Herman's barrister Bernard Quinn said in his opening address that his client felt intimidated and believed the group's actions were "entirely unreasonable and disrespectful".

The civil trial, before Judge Tim Ginnane, will continue next week.