But Buckley, who once entered into a bankruptcy arrangement, was dogged by his association with drug baron and accused murderer Tony Mokbel – right up to the time Mokbel breached bail and fled Australia in 2006 on the eve of his sentencing on cocaine trafficking charges.

The father of two is viewed by those who have had professional dealings with him as having a violent temper, acting like a commercial thug, and "a man with eight different personalities".

In 1990 Buckley was brought back to Australia from Hong Kong to face 29 charges of defrauding two stockbroking firms of more than $500,000.

The Melbourne Magistrates' Court was told that Mr Buckley had allegedly traded in credit using false names to open and operate accounts with stockbroking firms.

He was sent for trial in the County Court where he was given a two-year good behaviour bond after pleading guilty to unlicensed securities dealing.

He had pleaded not guilty to counts of theft, obtaining property by deception, and fraudulently inducing a person to deal in securities.

In 1992, Buckley was convicted of fraud involving share dealing without a licence and using false names to operate accounts with stockbroking firms. 

He pleaded guilty and received a two-year good behaviour bond.

He was also known to use his connection with Mokbel in business and staff situations.

In 2005, Buckley again found himself in court.

This time it was in the NSW Supreme Court as a prosecution witness in the kidnap-murder trial of the notorious Bruce Burrell, a one-time business associate of Mr Buckley.

Burrell was convicted in 2007 of killing Kerry Whelan in 1997 and of sending her husband a ransom demand of more than $1 million the day after her disappearance.

Burrell was described by the sentencing judge as a cold, remorseless killer.

Mr Buckley's association with Burrell came to light when NSW detectives found a copy of an affidavit Burrell had written, indicating he had given evidence in an impending court dispute over the ownership of UltraTune.

Mr Buckley told the court hearing into Kerry Whelan's murder that he was a director of UltraTune Australia and in late 1996 or early 1997 Burrell had asked him for a letter stating that he had worked for UltraTune.

Mr Buckley said Burrell told him the letter would help him with a bank loan application.

Mr Buckley said that he refused, because Burrell was not an employee.

The court also heard that Mr Buckley asked Burrell for a statutory declaration to assist him in a messy Victorian Supreme Court action over the ownership of UltraTune.

Mr Buckley claimed Burrell asked for $15,000 in return for the statutory declaration and allegedly threatened him when he refused.

Mr Buckley told the court Burrell became angry and allegedly said: "I want you to get me the f------ money. If you don't get me the f------ money . . . you'd just better f------ well do it or else."

Buckley was one of the people federal police first interviewed after Mokbel disappeared in March 2006 and was on a list of names produced in court by agents seeking the forfeiture of Mokbel's $1 million surety after he absconded.

The list of 16 friends, family members and associates included Mokbel's brothers Milad, Kabalan and Horty, his lover, Danielle McGuire, his ex-wife Carmel and Carlton identity Mick Gatto.

Australian federal Police officer Jarrod Ragg told the Supreme Court none of the 16 had been able to help police trying to find Mokbel and none had reported a concern for his safety.

Mokbel was living in a luxury Southbank apartment in the same block as an apartment owned by one of Mr Buckley's companies when he skipped bail in March 2006 and became Australia's most wanted man.

Associates claim Mokbel earlier stayed in Mr Buckley's apartment while his own was being refurbished.

They also claim the notorious drug trafficker had earlier stayed at a Gold Coast apartment owned by another of Mr Buckley's companies while Mokbel was on bail.

Buckley's association with Mokbel began when he bought a horse farm at Willowmavin, near Kilmore, from the drug boss in 2004.

He maintains he chanced upon the Kilmore farm not knowing it was Mokbel's and it was part of a seizure of assets.

The farm was included in an estimated $20 million in assets frozen in 2001, after his arrest in Victoria's biggest drug operation.

"It was pursuant to a lease agreement that the lawyers, the Director of Public Prosecutions and the bank negotiated, where I paid him to lease the property until the property I'd purchased was settled," Mr Buckley said.

Asked why he'd paid in cash and not used bank transfers, Mr Buckley said that that was what Mokbel wanted, and claimed the transactions had been approved by the DPP.

He claimed the sale contract was specific: the cash was to be personally collected by Mokbel. "That's the way he wanted it, and the contract was specific," he said.

Mr Buckley paid $1 million for the horse farm, but according to his former associates it was worth three times as much.

The sale was signed off by the DPP's office.

Mr Buckley, who now owns champion race mare Miss Andretti (left), bought it for $1 million from a company owned by Mokbel's wife, Carmel, but it has since been refurbished at a cost of several million dollars.

The property includes a full-size training track, spelling paddocks and other training facilities.

Mr Buckley's lawyers had to negotiate its sale through the Office of Public Prosecutions, which had restrained it while trying to confiscate Mokbel's assets.

Proceeds of the sale were held in trust and later paid to the National Australia Bank to satisfy debts owed to the bank.

Mr Buckley publicly stated in 2004 he had inadvertently purchased Mokbel's farm, claiming he was unaware at the time of its ownership.

"I bought a farm off Tony. Well I didn't buy it off Tony, only because his wife owned it . . . but I bought a farm off them," he told The Sunday Age.

"My lawyers handled everything and they executed it in the correct methods. It went to the Supreme Court of Victoria and was approved.

"And in those interviews with Tony when he was at the lawyer's office, he said he had a hair loss problem and he came to one of my hair loss studios, simple as that."

Two of Mokbel's former criminal associates have told police in sworn affidavits that Mokbel raced horses in other people's names despite an ownership ban by racing authorities.

One said horses "owned by other blokes in the drug trade" were also kept at the property.

Mokbel was also associated with Mr Buckley through a hair restoration studio in Melbourne.

On June 15, 2007, the Herald Sun reported that two of Australia's leading businessmen were caught up in a furore over a vicious website.

Sean Buckley had been accused of being linked to a campaign that forced his competitor to sell his Midas chain.

Philip Bonney (left), CEO and chairman of Midas, is now living in a secret place, fearing for his and his wife's wellbeing.

Mr Buckley denied any involvement in the website.

"There is no truth at all," Mr Buckley told the Herald Sun.

The campaign against Mr Bonney is being investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

The anonymous internet site attacked Midas Asia Pacific and described Mr Bonney as a thief, a liar and a dribbling wreck.

He was accused of cheating his clients, causing the suicide death of a franchisee and being taken into custody by police.

"It's corporate terrorism. You don't know who they are, but they just attack you and attack you," Mr Bonney said.

"And there was nothing I could do about it."

Fraudulent emails purporting to be from his executives were also sent out to Midas' suppliers and franchisees attacking the business.

For the past three years the ACCC has looked into the complaints against Midas but found insufficient evidence to support them.

Mr Bonney, speaking for the first time since he had changed address, said the campaign of lies and intimidation had taken a heavy toll on his business and personal life.

"It's been a nightmare. I'm on my knees," he said.

"They have forced me to sell my business."

After the Bonneys moved, a competition was conducted on the website to discover their new address.

The internet campaign managed to successfully choke off Midas's cashflows by urging franchisees not to pay their fees and rents.

His enemies also urged some franchisees to change allegiance to Midas's competitors, notably UltraTune.

Mr Buckley said that UltraTune had received anonymous information alleging the company's involvement in the website.

"We wrote to Midas denying it," he said.

Mr Buckley also denied any association during personal telephone calls he made to an anguished Mr Bonney.

The person at the centre of the campaign was allegedly Ray Borradale, UltraTune's Queensland franchise support manager, who is a former Midas franchisee.

Mr Borradale is under a Federal Court order preventing him from publicly attacking Mr Bonney.

"Ever since the website went up, UltraTune's business has grown while mine has gone down," Mr Bonney said.

Mr Buckley said he'd asked Mr Borradale if he was involved in the website.

"He had a history of setting up a website prior to joining me," Mr Buckley said. "My general manager asked him whether or not he was involved in this website, and he signed a stautory declaration.

"All I can do as a director of my company is to request that my employee signs such a document," Mr Buckley said.

Mr Bonney said he'd been friends with Mr Buckley's family for more than 20 years.

"I just can't work it out," he said. "I've had a gutful." Mr Bonney, 39, is a nephew of champion St Kilda wingman John Bonney.

His family companies in Tasmania are involved in transport and industrial services.

Mr Bonney said the smear campaign had succeeded in driving down his business, costing him millions of dollars.

"I'm meant to be walking away sometime in July," Mr Bonney said.

He said the new owner was fully informed of the campaign.

"He's aware of what he's taking on," he said. "I've had to bail out at a substantial cost."

Mr Bonney said that he had also been targeted by the website, along with claims that the Midas sale was not going ahead.

"We've spent more than $100,000 investigating the website and trying to bring it down," he said.

"We've also spent more than $600,000 on legal defences. The business just can't sustain it.

"It's cost us $3 million over the past 12 months."

Mr Bonney said the campaign had also affected his franchisees, who had watched as the value of businesses they'd built up diminished.

"They've put their houses and other assets on the line. They're the ones I feel for," he said.

"I feel like I've been in a boxing (ring) for 15 rounds with my hands tied behind my back, and with the lights out.

"I've been punched every day from all directions by an unseen enemy."

The Midas office had received phone threats, which were reported to South Melbourne police. One caller said there was a contract out on Mr Bonney.

In August 2007, Buckley was again called to give evidence against Burrell, who had been charged with a second murder -- Dorothy Davis, 74.

The wealthy widow went missing in 1995, two years before Kerry Whelan was kidnapped.

Burrell was found guilty again and awaits sentencing.

The court heard Mrs Davis was a family friend of Burrell and had lent him $100,000 but later wanted it to be repaid.

The bodies of both women have not been found.

The Mokbel asset investigators were checking records to identify horses that may be registered under sham owners on behalf of the alleged crime syndicate.

Mr Buckley's expected appearance at the ACC will be as a witness, not a suspect.

As part of the police investigation, authorities will speak to a Melbourne restaurateur linked to both Mr Buckley and Tony Mokbel, who connects owners in horse syndicates.

The secret payments – up to $50,000 at a time – were handed over during visits to Mr Buckley's East Melbourne hair restoration salon – an offshoot of his Ultra Tune empire.

Mr Buckley also arranged a bogus client contract to hide his close dealings with Mokbel.

On one occasion Mokbel was given a cash cheque drawn on Mr Buckley's company.

The exact reasons for the transactions were unknown, but it is estimated about $1 million was passed to Mokbel.

Sources have told the Herald Sun the cash was never counted by Mokbel and receipts were never given. As well, in a ruse to hide his association with Mokbel, Mr Buckley personally arranged for a bogus laser hair contract to be drawn up.

A former studio worker explained it this way: "Mokbel came in one day and Buckley asked for a laser contract to be filled in with Mokbel's signature.

"He said, 'Make sure Tony signs it, and don't take any money off him'.

"When asked why, he said: 'Just in case the feds come in asking questions.'

"Mokbel never had any treatment. He wasn't even interested in a wig. He'd say, 'No way, mate. I'm not interested. I don't want that s--t on my head'.

"He just didn't like it."

Buckley denies having had any association with Mokbel, and has threatened this newspaper with legal action.

In an interview on Channel 9's A Current Affair, he said the cash payments involved a farm he claimed to have inadvertently bought from Mokbel.

The Herald Sun has asked the DPP if Mr Buckley's -- claim that it had approved unaccounted-for cash payments to a convicted criminal on bail awaiting trial on drugs charges -- was true.

The DPP will not comment.

Mr Buckley has always claimed he had an innocent relationship with the drug baron.

He denied the latest allegations as "entirely false and without foundation" in a letter from his lawyers.

But the Herald Sun revealed the pair had a close financial and social association, linked by their love of horse racing.

Mokbel, who is banned from racecourses, has been suspected of disguising his ownership of racehorses by registering them in the names of friends and business associates.

Miss Andretti, a winner at Royal Ascot, was in Hong Kong for the $2.2 million 2007 International Sprint.

The glamour mare, who won Australia's Racehorse of the Year the previous week, was favourite to win but she disappointed.

The Herald Sun pieced together the strong association between Mokbel and Mr Buckley.

Everyone who spoke to the Herald Sun did so on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from one man in particular – Peter Sean Buckley.

Sources told of how Mokbel went to the Ultra Hair Studio – where Mr Buckley had an upstairs office – to collect money.

"The cash was collected every week from Sean's Ultra Tune car service outlets – not the franchises – and taken to the Box Hill headquarters," a source said.

"It was bound together with rubber bands and placed in a brown paper bag."

The money was sometimes collected by prostitutes, sometimes by a former Miss Nude World finalist.

It was usually delivered by a trusted senior Ultra Tune employee to the Ultra Hair Studio Pty Ltd studio in Victoria St, East Melbourne.

Mokbel would then call in and collect the cash.

"It was an open secret. A lot of people in the company were aware of it," a source said.

"They'd go upstairs and later lunch together at a small cafe next door. Sometimes one of Buckley's managers would join them.

"They'd be sitting together, laughing and joking like they were old mates having a good day. Sean would often say he and Tony were mates."

Mokbel would sometimes arrive in a black Mercedes driven by a young woman, which would be parked in a No Standing bay close to the hair studio. He would leave the driver behind the wheel and the engine running.

Mokbel often had a bodyguard, sources said.

"But there were times when he didn't bring protection. That is, one we could see," another witness said.

Sources said Mr Buckley later feared Mokbel's visits could involve him in a possible police surveillance operation.

So he initiated a contract pretending that Mokbel was receiving laser hair treatment.

"He believed that would explain Mokbel's weekly visits to his salon," another source said.

"Sean asked one of the staff to make up a false contract for laser (treatment) for Tony.

"When asked why, Buckley turned to her and said: `Just in case the federal police boys come around here'."

Sources told the Herald Sun Mokbel never received laser treatment.

"It was bulls---. Tony had no hair and you can't grow hair on a bald head. Tony never received treatment," one said.

Mr Buckley's lawyers told the Herald Sun Mokbel entered a contract with Ultra Hair for laser growth treatments "but he quit from his contract after a few months".

He was young, keen and had just arrived in Melbourne from Canberra for extra training in hair treatment.

There would be no second-rate accommodation for this young man.

He had been given the key to the boss's luxury Southbank apartment.

But little did he know that the company-owned apartment came with a shadowy tenant. And the two would soon meet in an explosive encounter, one the visitor will never forget.

It was during his first night in Southbank that the man was startled from his sleep by noises in another room.

Suddenly, he was grabbed by the hair and could feel cold steel being pushed into his face.

It was a handgun.

As he was pinned down by a bodyguard, a man he would learn to be Tony Mokbel screamed: "What the f--- are you doing here?"

He cried out that he meant no harm, and explained he ran the Ultra Hair Studio in Canberra and was staying in the apartment at the invitation of his boss -- Sean Buckley.

Initially fearing it was part of an attempted hit, Mokbel eventually released him.

He then peeled $300 in cash from his wallet and dispatched the still-shaking visitor to Crown casino to spend the rest of the night.

The following morning, the man told Ultra Hair staff of his interrupted night.

He became even more distressed when he was told the identity and reputation of his "flatmate".

When Mr Buckley heard the account, he just laughed.

"Sean thought it was a huge joke, and kept laughing," the Herald Sun was told.

The young man returned to Canberra and is no longer with the company.

According to sources, Mokbel had his own keys to the apartment. He had exclusive use of the pad for several months while his own apartment -- one level above -- was being renovated.

Mokbel, the sources said, also used Mr Buckley's telephone, believing his own phone was tapped by police.

Mr Buckley denies lending his apartment to Mokbel.

His lawyers told the Herald Sun: "Mr Mokbel has never stayed at Mr Buckley's Southbank apartment."

But the Herald Sun was told the friendship extended to the drug baron having free use of Mr Buckley's five-star apartment in Surfers Paradise.

That was where Mokbel stayed after he received special approval by the Supreme Court to travel interstate while on bail of $1 million surety over drug trafficking charges.

Sources said that Mokbel used the Moroccan Tower apartment a number of times. This is denied by Mr Buckley's lawyers.

In their letter, they state: "Mr Buckley's apartment is in the rental pool when not used by Mr Buckley and therefore he is not aware of everyone who might rent his apartment.

"However, a review of the rental pool records do not disclose the apartment ever being used by Mr Mokbel."

Mr Buckley, speaking from Hong Kong, said he was flabbergasted at reports that the transactions were secret and "somehow dirty".

The chief of the Ultra Tune and Ultra Hair empires said he was so upset at the insinuation that he had been involved in a clandestine financial relationship with Mokbel that he had been unable to focus on Miss Andretti's preparations.

"I just wish I'd never bought the farm in the first place, all the drama it has caused me," he said, referring to a property he bought from Mokbel's wife at Kilmore three years ago, where he has established his stud racehorse business.

He said he had not been aware of any criminal charges against Mokbel at the time and he found him "a pleasant personality" when he met him at Mokbel's lawyer's rooms in Melbourne to arrange to lease the Kilmore farm.

However, he said he and Mokbel were never close, they had never owned a horse together and Mokbel had never sent a horse to his stud.

Mr Buckley has instructed his lawyers to take action against the Herald Sun over articles published yesterday that alleged he had paid up to $50,000 at a time in secret weekly payments to Mokbel, who is fighting extradition from Greece to face murder and other charges in Melbourne.

Mr Buckley said the payments were fully documented and were legally required under an arrangement approved by the Director of Public Prosecutions and witnessed by both his and Mokbel's lawyers.

They were the result of a commercial lease agreement that allowed him to operate the Kilmore farm while convoluted investigations were carried out to establish the bona fides of the farm's ownership.

"The deal was that I could lease the farm, spend money on it fixing it up and I would be reimbursed if the sale didn't go ahead," Mr Buckley said. "I put new fencing in, sheds — I spent about $2 million to $2.5 million before I actually bought it."

Mr Buckley said he had needed a farm to operate a racehorse stud business he had purchased from another friend, Norm George.

He had first seen the farm — once owned by celebrated racehorse trainer Bart Cummings — after a friend had told him it was for sale. "I drove up to Kilmore and found this place with a little handwritten sign on it," he said. "I rang up and it turned out that Tony Mokbel's wife owned it."

Interviewed on Channel 9's A Current Affair, Mr Buckley said he paid Mokbel cash and cheques to lease the Kilmore property until the sale had been settled.

Asked why he paid cash, Mr Buckley replied: "Twenty per cent was paid in cash. It was a very small amount."

Asked about his lunches with Mokbel, Mr Buckley said: "I had a coffee and a sandwich with him one day after he had his hair treatment."

He denied they shared a friendship, describing it more as an acquaintance.

"I was wary, but . . . I had to pay him the money at the end of the month for the lease of the farm."

Asked why they met in person and did not use bank transfers, Mr Buckley replied: "That's the way he (Mokbel) wanted it. The contract was specific about that."

He claims it was coincidental that Mokbel owned an apartment above him at Southbank.

"He had the apartment well before me and I didn't know he had it when I bought my apartment, so it was a coincidence," Mr Buckley said.

"I'm an honest businessman -- I play with a straight bat."

A story by the Herald Sun's Russell Robinson described the regular meetings between Mokbel and Buckley.

What's more, they'd been meeting regularly for some time. But keen observers would have noted that the men were rarely alone.

There would always be someone standing in the door, usually with heavily tattooed arms, who kept a silent vigil, alert to any unfamiliar or sudden movements.

What's more, they would've seen the black Mercedes, with the tinted windows, parked a few doors up Victoria Parade in a no-standing zone. The engine would often be left running.

To these men security was paramount, even down to the use of mobile telephones.

When the men met, the phones would be placed on the table and then stripped of their batteries.

To those who ventured closer to the corner table at the Tuscany Terrace Cafe the purpose of the meetings would become more apparent once the identity of one of the men became known.

It was Antonios Sahij Mokbel, a notorious drug trafficker and underworld identity -- a man to be feared.

The other man was Buckley. And the third member was a man known as David, a manager at Ultra Hair Studios.

When the lunches concluded, the mobile phones were reassembled, and Mr Buckley settled the bill.

"Sean always paid, and he'd always put it on the company account," a former employee told the Herald Sun this week.

"Tony would come to the studio almost always weekly, and if it wasn't weekly it'd be once a fortnight or twice every three weeks. That's how it always happened. Tony would arrive and say 'Hi' to the girls, give them a racing tip, then go upstairs with Sean. They'd shut the door. Sometimes David would be with them.

"After a while they'd come down and then go to the cafe, two doors up. Everyone saw them. It was no secret, and Buckley would always brag to everyone how he and Mokbel were good mates."

Another source told the Herald Sun the three men preferred to sit inside the cafe, in a corner, with Mokbel facing the window.

"He'd always have a bodyguard who'd stand off from the group, always in the doorway. The guards were never the same," the source said. "The phones were Mokbel's idea. He had it in his head that the feds (police) could monitor their conversations even with the phones turned off.

Mr Buckley also denies he regularly lunched with Mokbel.

On television last week he claimed: "I did have a cup of coffee and a sandwich one day with him."

But the Herald Sun was told the two would also breakfast together in a Malvern restaurant.

Sources estimate the pair lunched more than 20 times in the Victoria Parade cafe.

"Mokbel would have toasted cheese-and-tomato sandwiches, while Buckley would have tuna salad -- finished with either a pink or a pineapple doughnut," a source said.

Mr Buckley also claims his association with Mokbel was based on coincidences, from the Kilmore farm to the luxury apartments he and the drug tsar owned in the same Southbank building.

Mokbel's unit was the two-level penthouse directly above his.

The Herald Sun reported that Mokbel had extensive use of Mr Buckley's apartment, as well as his Gold Coast holiday pad.

Mr Buckley denies this, and last week on television stated that Mokbel had his apartment "well before me, and I didn't know him at the time I bought my apartment".

Property searches reveal that Mr Buckley, through UltraTune Australia Pty Ltd, bought unit 2501 in the Century Tower, in December 2002.

The Herald Sun was told during their association from 2004 to 2006, Mr Buckley told staff Mokbel had purchased an apartment in his block.

"I remember Buckley telling everyone: 'Tony's bought the apartment above me. We're going to be neighbours'," a source said.

"He bragged about introducing Mokbel to the former owners."

The controversial car-care tycoon has trod a rocky path to his present corporate success, leaving in his wake many sworn enemies, despair and broken lives.

UntraTune Systems Australia was predominantly owned by about 120 franchisees, owned by about 20 shareholders. There was not much business expertise.

It was suggested for the business to survive the board needed real firepower.

Sean Buckley's father, Peter, ended up as chairman. A key recommendation was to sell the shareholdings to give the operation more commercial muscle.

After a number of failed attempts to float the business, it was sold for $450,000 to a company controlled by two sisters.

One of them was Sean Buckley's de facto wife.

AFTER that the original company was placed into voluntary administration, then into liquidation in December, 1994.

The liquidators alleged the business was worth $3 million more than its sale price, stating it was essentially sold for nothing.

They took legal action alleging the business was sold for under value, and the process involved an allegedly undisclosed related party transaction.

It became a series of major Supreme Court battles, in Victoria and in New South Wales.

There were also allegations of the use of company funds on prostitutes, bugged meetings and threatening phone calls.

But the Supreme Court ruled that it had been an arm's-length sale, and that the company had poor earnings.

Mr Buckley had said the previous day that he was wrongly accused of having a fraud conviction, and a criminal association with Mokbel.

"I don't know him well at all. I never went to his birthday parties, I never went to his house," Mr Buckley said outside the Supreme Court.

When asked about allegations of criminal involvement with Mokbel, Mr Buckley replied: "It's just so untrue it's not funny. To say this man was getting large sums of money off me — $1 million cash — is just fanciful."

A writ lodged at the court alleged that four articles, published in the newspaper and on its website, injured Mr Buckley's reputation as a businessman and racing identity.

The writ alleged that the first article, published on December 5, suggested Mr Buckley was criminally involved with Tony Mokbel, and secretly paid him $1 million cash. It defamed Mr Buckley by suggesting he acted as a commercial thug, was a close friend of Mokbel and acted as a "stooge" for Mokbel's ownership of Miss Andretti, and concealed illicit and illegal payments to him through false contracts, it said.

Mr Buckley claimed $250,000, plus indexation, in general damages for each article, and more than $1 million special damages. He also seeks unlimited aggravated damages, in part because it it alleged the Herald and Weekly Times and journalist Russell Robinson knew that meanings resulting from the stories were untrue, or were reckless about the truth of them.

It was also alleged Mr Buckley's lawyers wrote to the publisher and journalist that the main gist of the articles was false.

"The defendants chose to publicise the identity of (Mr Buckley) in reference to Tony Mokbel in order to sensationalise the story by reference to their association," the writ said.

Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie said the newspaper stood by its reports. "Any legal proceedings (will) be defended vigorously," he said.

The writ seeks a trial by judge and jury. A directions hearing is scheduled for March 3 2007.