Westmount woman sues TD Bank and Scotiabank

A Westmount woman who was the victim of identity theft that left her unable to secure a loan is suing two banks that she says took too long to correct the situation, according to a lawsuit filed at the Montreal courthouse in June.

Céline Levac says TD Bank and Scotiabank knew about fraudulent activity done in her name for months before removing it from her credit report.

Levac’s lawyer, Rémi Bastarache, said she went through all the necessary steps to correct her credit dossier, but the banks neglected to fix it.

“She did everything. She advised everyone. She met with people,” he said. “They knew she was the victim of identity theft, but it was only 19 months later that they fixed it.”

In the summer of 2016, Levac got a call from a TD Bank agent asking her about unpaid funds. The problem: she never had a bank account with TD.

The issue was looked into and in August 2016, a bank investigator concluded that Levac had been the victim of identity theft. She was assured by the investigator that the unpaid loans and fees accumulated under her name would be removed from her financial records.

In September 2016, Levac submitted a request for the fraudulent transactions made in her name to be deleted from her credit record. She also filed a police report with the SPVM stating she had been a victim of identity theft.

Levac flips houses for a living; she buys homes, renovates them and resells them for a profit. In May 2017, thinking that her credit situation was resolved, she tried to buy a residence in Westmount but was told she could not take out a loan because her credit score was in abysmal shape.

She found that her credit report still showed fraudulent bank accounts with TD Bank and Scotiabank that had accumulated costs and fees. Furthermore, the lawsuit alleges that in February 2017, despite the note on her credit score that she had been the victim of fraud, Scotiabank lent money to two people in her name.

According to the lawsuit, her credit record was only corrected in late December 2017, when TD Bank finally struck the fraudulent accounts from her credit score.

Scotiabank did the same in January 2018, but the suit maintains that the damage was done: Levac owed almost $70,000 in interest to a private lender because she had been unable to secure a conventional bank loan.

Bastarache said the case against the banks is just beginning and will probably take a long time to make its way through the courts.

“Banks have lots of lawyers,” he said. “When you pursue a bank, it’s like David against Goliath.”

TD Bank and Scotiabank did not respond to requests for comments.