Sam Wood’s Joint Melbourne Homes Are Frozen From Jail

Sam Wood remains in Brisbane Correctional Centre after a magistrate refused bail on 8 October. Two Melbourne houses he owns with his wife Snezana, including a $7.15 million Brighton home that was days from listing, now sit idle.

He denies strangulation and assault charges from a Noosa holiday on 3 October. The freeze on those houses is not his alone. Snezana is on the titles, ANZ is on the mortgages, and a third Brighton house they occupy still belongs, on paper, to someone else.

The Brighton House They Never Moved Into

Public records and neighbours tell a messier story than a simple “empire” on hold. Wood, 46, and Snezana Wood own two homes in Greater Melbourne: a Brighton house bought off-market for $7.15 million in September 2025 and settled in January, and a four-bedroom Mount Martha place they paid $2.7 million for in October 2020.

They do not appear to be living in either. People on the street say the family never moved into the $7.15 million house, that cosmetic work has been under way, and that an agent has already visited. The five-bedroom Brighton home has a pool and a tennis court. The sale campaign was being handled by Jellis Craig, and it is not known whether that campaign will still go ahead.

Instead, Wood’s Mercedes-Benz G-wagon with personalised plates has been parked behind a high gate at a third Bayside house. That five-bedroom, three-bathroom home is owned by Shara Healy, the ex-wife of media executive Antony Catalano. The Woods had already been living there under a deal that let them occupy it during a long settlement, a house put at about $6 million. Healy was not reached for comment.

THE WOODS’ MELBOURNE PROPERTY STACK

They had already cashed out of Elsternwick. That five-bedroom house, bought in 2018 for $3.31 million, sold privately for $6,125,000, with settlement landing in 2026. The Mount Martha house is the one Oasis singer Liam Gallagher used during a Melbourne tour stop last year. None of those sales or stays answers the question hanging over Brighton now: who can sign a $7.15 million listing while the alleged victim and the accused still share the title, and the accused is in a Queensland jail.

Who Else Has Skin in These Houses

Victorian land title records list ANZ mortgages on both the $7.15 million Brighton house and the Mount Martha home. That is the fact that cuts through the “$71 million man” shorthand. A lender, a co-owner, an agent, and a vendor with an unfinished settlement all have a stake in what happens next, and none of them appeared at Maroochydore.

Snezana, 46, is the co-owner and the complainant. She was not in court on 8 October. After the arrest, the couple’s young children went back to school in Melbourne for the last term of the year, and friends were seen coming and going from the Healy house. She has kept a low public profile since. A joint statement posted to both of their accounts on 5 October said: “This is a difficult time for all of us, we are working through this as a family and are co-operating with authorities.”

WHO IS TIED TO THE BRIGHTON STACK

• Snezana Wood: Joint owner on both titles, alleged victim, and the person whose consent any sale would need.
• ANZ: Mortgagee on the Brighton house and on Mount Martha, per Victorian land title records.
• Jellis Craig: Agency attached to the planned Brighton campaign, with no public word on whether it proceeds.
• Shara Healy: Owner of the house the family has been occupying during a long settlement.
• Four daughters: Eve Markoski-Wood, 21, plus Willow, Charlie and Harper, who were on the Noosa trip and then sent back to Melbourne school.

A live listing on a $7.15 million bayside house is a marketing product. Once the accused and the alleged victim are the same two names on the contract of sale, the campaign is no longer a renovation story. Even a later grant of bail would not wipe that file off a buyer’s search.

The Fitness Brand Dropped Him in Two Days

Wood built 28 by Sam Wood as a home workout and nutrition program aimed at women, then sold it in 2022 to myDNA, backed by Melbourne healthcare businessman Dennis Bastas, in a deal valued at $71 million. He stayed on as the face of the brand and later fronted Ollo for Women, a midlife telehealth venture also under Bastas’s DBG Health. Corporate records checked after the arrest show he does not hold an equity stake in the 28 business now. He resigned as a director of Australian Life Tech, the parent he sold, in 2024.

DBG Health put him on indefinite leave on 5 October. The next day it ended the relationship.

Yesterday, we announced that Sam Wood had been placed on indefinite leave. As a result of further considerations, DBG Health has now terminated all arrangements.

DBG Health, statement posted 6 October 2026

The company said 28 would keep running under Mark Watkin, the 28 Group’s chief operating officer, with existing trainers. “DBG Health does not tolerate domestic violence in any form, and our thoughts are with anyone affected by it,” it added, and declined further comment because the matter is before the court. Watkin had already said staff were “shocked and saddened.” Pictures of Wood came down from the 28 website and from the brand’s Instagram account, which has 249,000 followers. His image was also gone from the Ollo site.

The Woodshed, the Brighton East gym he founded in 2014, is a separate vehicle. Personal trainers were still running classes in the days after the arrest, and his voice was still on the membership voicemail, but click-through sign-up links were broken. ASIC had already moved on The Woodshed Group Pty Ltd, of which he was a director and major shareholder. The regulator started deregistration in June after unpaid review fees, and the company was struck off on 30 August. Older partners were already gone: Woolworths said it had not stocked Wood-related products since 2024, Blackmores said its 28 deal ended in 2022, and Bupa said its online classes were a short Covid-era arrangement.

The Tax Office Claim Was Already Over

The other creditor in the background is the Australian Taxation Office, and that fight had already ended before Noosa. The Deputy Commissioner of Taxation sued Wood in the Victorian County Court over unpaid income tax for the years ended 30 June 2022, 2023 and 2024. The writ claimed $7,349,264.86, a figure that includes interest on top of the year-by-year tax.

The ATO first issued three notices in May 2025. In the year he sold 28, the writ said he paid $14,747.12 in income tax and still owed $4,037,461. The later years were smaller, then large again.

THE COUNTY COURT TAX BREAKDOWN

• Year to 30 June 2022: $4,037,461 unpaid, after $14,747.12 paid, the same year as the $71 million sale.
• Year to 30 June 2023: $102,023.20 in unpaid liabilities.
• Year to 30 June 2024: $3,189,107 claimed unpaid.
• Writ total: $7,349,264.86, including interest and extra items on top of those three year figures.

Those three year amounts add to $7,328,591.20. The gap up to the writ total is interest and other charges, not a fourth tax year. Wood did not file a defence despite extensions. The claim was later dismissed by agreement, without a finding on the debt, and he was to pay the ATO’s legal costs of $1,647.40. The terms of any payment stay private. What the file still shows is cash pressure in the same stretch as a $7.15 million off-market buy and a $6,125,000 Elsternwick sale.

Strangulation Charges Flip the Bail Burden

Wood is charged with assault occasioning bodily harm as a domestic violence offence, and with choking, suffocation or strangulation in a domestic setting under section 315A of Queensland’s Criminal Code. The second charge carries a maximum of seven years’ jail. It is a strictly indictable offence, which means an adult cannot finish it in the Magistrates Court. If it goes the distance, a District Court jury decides it.

Parliament added a definition in 2023. A person is taken to choke, suffocate or strangle if they apply pressure to the neck that fully or partly restricts breathing or blood flow, or both. Partial restriction is enough. Assault is not an element of the offence, so provocation is not a defence. Self-defence can still be run, and the prosecution must disprove it beyond reasonable doubt if it is raised on the evidence.

WHAT SHOW CAUSE MEANS HERE

• The offence: Section 315A is a show-cause charge under section 16 of the Bail Act 1980.
• The burden: Wood had to prove that keeping him in custody was not justified, rather than the police having to prove he should stay in.
• The usual result: Watchhouse bail is rare on this charge; a magistrate, and then sometimes the Supreme Court, has to hear it.
• If convicted: Queensland Sentencing Advisory Council figures for 2015-16 to 2022-23, summarised in a 2024 spotlight, show most adults jailed, with typical prison terms of two to four years.

That reverse onus is why a clean record did not get him home to Melbourne. It is also why a $7.15 million listing, an unfinished Healy settlement, and a co-owner who is the complainant all sit still. The houses cannot move while the person who would sign with Snezana is in a show-cause cell.

Why Maroochydore Refused Bail on 8 October

Police were called to a Hastings Street address in Noosa about 9pm on Saturday 3 October. The family had been staying at La Mer, a $3,000-a-night apartment, at the end of the school holidays. Queensland Ambulance Service said paramedics assessed one stable patient, who declined transport to hospital. Wood was charged in the early hours of 4 October and refused police bail.

At the 8 October hearing, Acting Magistrate Janelle Boegheim set out the prosecution case. After dinner, the court heard, Snezana wanted to pack for a flight and Wood wanted to go to bed. Boegheim said the applicant yelled and pushed her into a wardrobe, then, in the hallway, grabbed her throat with one hand, threw her against a wall, striking her head, threw her to the ground, and held her throat, “gripping tight and restricting her airway.” Eve Markoski-Wood, 21, made the Triple Zero call. Sergeant Jeanette Grigoris said the recorded statement described choking, head-striking, and an inability to breathe, and that “the defendant only stopped when one of the children called out.”

I’m not satisfied the applicant has shown cause.

Acting Magistrate Janelle Boegheim, Maroochydore Magistrates Court, 8 October 2026

Grigoris told the court the complainant supported the charges and feared retribution. “She thought she was going to die, and she was in fear of her safety,” she said. She opposed bail on flight risk: “He has no connections to Queensland.” “He does have the resources to essentially flee the jurisdiction.” She also told the court police had attended a similar incident in Victoria that did not become a formal complaint, and that Snezana’s statement described an earlier choking. Under recent changes, she said, that history could be led as a pattern. If convicted, she submitted, he would likely face up to two years, her estimate, not the seven-year maximum.

Wood appeared by video in prison greens, with solicitor Mathew Cuskelly and barrister David Cole. Cuskelly said there were “hostilities,” that the complainant moved toward his client and kept yelling, that Wood pushed her away, and that there was “denial of any strangulation.” He said photos tendered in court did not show neck injuries, that a paramedic had reported minimal injuries, and that Wood had asked for a lawyer “two or three times” at the scene. A report from forensic psychologist Professor Ian Coyle diagnosed severe depression. Cuskelly asked that Wood live with his father in Victoria and get treatment, and said his professional reputation had “taken a hell of a beating.” Grigoris said the psychologist had not been told about the earlier Melbourne incident. Boegheim called the prosecution case “relatively strong” and said bail could be looked at again if that changed. Wood put his head in his hands. He is entitled to the presumption of innocence. The charges are unproven.

Anyone affected can contact the national 1800RESPECT counselling service on 1800 737 732.

FROM NOOSA TO WACOL

1. 3 October 2026: Police attend Hastings Street, Noosa, about 9pm after a Triple Zero call from Eve Markoski-Wood.
2. 4 October 2026: Wood is charged with assault occasioning bodily harm (domestic violence) and strangulation in a domestic setting, and refused police bail.
3. 5 October 2026: He appears by video at Maroochydore; a full bail bid is listed for later in the week; DBG Health stands him down; the family statement goes up.
4. 6 October 2026: DBG Health terminates all arrangements, effective immediately.
5. 8 October 2026: Boegheim refuses bail. That night he is moved to Brisbane Correctional Centre at Wacol, arriving about 9pm.
6. 9 October 2026: Cuskelly confirms instructions to apply for bail in the Supreme Court of Queensland.
7. 23 November 2026: Next listed Magistrates Court date, unless a Supreme Court judge releases him first.

The reputation line was always going to land badly in a show-cause choking hearing. A clean record, a father in Victoria, and a psychologist’s letter are the ordinary materials of a bail affidavit. They do not reverse a statute that was written, after the Not Now, Not Ever review, because non-fatal strangulation is treated as a marker of later lethal violence. That is the legal fact the property story keeps bumping into.

From Wacol He Will Ask the Supreme Court

Cuskelly said on 9 October that a Supreme Court bail application was coming. Elle’s 11 October update still had Wood in the high-security jail at Wacol, to remain there until 23 November pending that bid. No listing time for the Supreme Court hearing has been made public. If he is released, the likely conditions write themselves: a Melbourne address that is not Snezana’s, no-contact orders, and a surety large enough to match the flight-risk submission already made.

Release would not list the $7.15 million house. Snezana would still have to agree to sell a home that is now exhibits-adjacent. ANZ would still be on the mortgages. Healy would still be waiting on a settlement with a buyer who has been in custody. 28 will keep trading under Watkin without the man whose name is on the product. The Queensland Law Reform Commission has already given the Attorney-General 18 recommendations on non-fatal strangulation, tabled in Parliament on 11 February 2026; those changes are not yet law, and they do not decide this file.

Until a Supreme Court judge says otherwise, the joint Brighton title, the Mount Martha mortgage, and the Healy occupancy stay exactly where the 8 October ruling left them: attached to a man in Wacol, and to a co-owner the court was told is afraid of him.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting on court proceedings, company statements, and property records, and it is for information only. It is not legal advice, not a finding of guilt or innocence, and not guidance on bail, family law, or the sale of jointly owned land. Anyone facing charges, a protection order, or a decision about a shared title should speak to a qualified criminal or family lawyer in the relevant state before acting. Figures, listing status, and custody arrangements reflect the public record as dated in the piece and can change at the next court event.