Debt collection company suing Irwin, zoo

MELBOURNE, March 5 (UPI) -- A debt collection company is suing Terri Irwin and Australia Zoo for more than $2.5 million over transactions involving an offshore trust and a Singapore bank.

Irwin is the widow of late wildlife conservationist and TV personality Steve Irwin, whose father Bob founded the reptile park Steve and Terri eventually turned into the tourist mecca Australia Zoo.

She is now being sued for $60,000 and the zoo for $2.5 million, the Melbourne Herald Sun newspaper reported Wednesday.

Maree Kennedy, the judge presiding over the case in Victorian County Court, this week rejected Terri Irwin's bids to have the civil action dismissed or heard in Queensland where the zoo is located.

Kennedy said she felt the lawsuit should be heard in Melbourne because that is where the bills of exchange at the center of the case were issued, accepted and endorsed, the Herald Sun said.

The judge scheduled three weeks in October to hear the case.