Bikies allegedly bashed Olympic gold medallist Neil Brooks after a failed $2 million business deal, saying "you're a dead man", a court has heard.
The former swimming champion's nose was broken after being jumped in a Gold Coast car park in 2010 by two men hired by ex-business partner Glenn Melcheck, Brooks' barrister Christopher Wilson said.
Brooks, 60, and his wife Linda on Wednesday appeared in a Brisbane Magistrates Court committal hearing, five years after being charged with fraud.
It is alleged they made dishonest representations to induce Mr Melcheck and his wife to pay $2 million and buy 50 per cent of the Brooks' sports merchandise company before it failed months later in 2008.
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.
Mr Melcheck was accused of standing nearby smiling as the men he claimed were debt collectors demanded Brooks sign papers in a bid to access more than $70,000.
"When he (Brooks) was getting up one of the men said 'you're a dead man, he's got a gun and I've got a knife, try and run and I will cut your f***ing throat'," Mr Wilson said.
"I didn't hear that," Mr Melcheck told the hearing.
Mr Wilson said Brooks had blood on his clothes and the withdrawal slips that the men demanded he sign.
Mr Melcheck agreed that he was charged and pleaded guilty to public nuisance over the incident.
However, he denied that he had witnessed an assault or that the two men were bikies, saying Brooks hurt himself tripping over his thongs running across the car park.
Mr Melcheck said he had hired the men from a debt collection agency and travelled with them to see 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 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.
Mr Melcheck did not provide a written statement to police about the fraud claims until March 2016.
The court heard Mr Melcheck told police that Linda Brooks made false claims about having established relationships with European sporting teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in a meeting to discuss buying into their company in early 2008.
But he conceded it may have occurred after he paid them a deposit when told by Mr Wilson that Linda Brooks could not have spoken to him then because she was overseas.
Brooks earned fame as part of Australia's champion "Mean Machine" freestyle relay team, winning 1980 Olympic 4x100m medley gold before becoming a high-profile TV sport presenter.
"This has been 14 years that we've waited to finally tell our side of the story," Brooks earlier told media outside court.
"I'm really confident once people see the evidence and the facts ... that I'll be clear of all these charges."
The committal hearing before magistrate Peter Saggers continues.
