Police back repo men
Police appear to have unwittingly aided repossession agents who illegally took cars and furniture from a borrower’s home.
Budget Loans, and sister company Evolution Finance, were fined $720,000 in the Auckland District Court on Wednesday on charges relating to the exploitation of borrowers by taking possession of items like cars, fridges and TVs they had no legal right to take. But one of the borrowers said he assumed the repo agents had the right to strip furniture from his home because they arrived with police.
Issuing the $720,000 fine to Budget Loans, Judge David Sharp said: ‘‘The companies were able to engage the power of the state to assist them.’’
Mt Roskill resident Samuela Leuii, a former Commonwealth Games boxing competitor, scored one of his most notable victories when his evidence helped the Commerce Commission in its prosecution of Budget Loans.
Leuii had borrowed money from National Finance to buy a car in 2004, but when that lender ran into trouble, the loan was sold to Budget Loans.
In 2004, National Finance had obtained a court order for just over $6400 against Leuii but by 2012 the debt, according to Budget Loans, had blown out to over $24,000.
Repossession agents visited several times, including in September 2013, when, accompanied by police, they repossessed a car, fridge freezer, computer and a mattress.
Leuii assumed the repo men, who were laughing and joking as they took his things, brought police as they feared he might use his boxing skills on them.
‘‘They [the police] were on those guys’ side.
‘‘They came in case I got aggressive, I assume.’’
He said police told him: ‘‘You just do what they tell you.’’
‘‘They said they were just there to make sure everything went smoothly.
‘‘What’s smooth about taking our furniture?’’
The police presence lent legitimacy to the repo men’s actions.
‘‘They must be right because they are here with the police,’’ Leuii said.
But ‘‘all along, they were wrong’’, he said.
Leuii is one of nine victims who will share in $53,000 of ‘‘emotional harm reparations’’ which the court ordered Budget Loans to pay.
A police spokesman said: ‘‘We are not immediately aware of having had previous involvement or dealings with this company, and we are unable to confirm that police attended any related matter without further information such as dates and locations of specific incidents.
‘‘In general however, it is very uncommon for police to be called to attend repossessions. On occasion we may be called to attend solely for the purpose of preventing any breach of the peace.
‘‘Police do not have any active involvement in the repossession itself as it is a civil matter imposed by the courts. Any suggestion that we are involved in any way in repossession activity is incorrect.’’
Leuii said he would not have hit the repo men.
Commerce Commission lawyer Mary-Anne Borrowdale said that in some cases, Budget Loans ‘‘knowingly engaged in illegal repossessions of essential items from people that it knew were already living in hardship’’.
‘‘Its own loan notes include such comments as: someone’s great idea to undertake an illegal repo; and debtor not to know we can’t repo.’’
The police spokesman said any concerns over unlawful repossessions should be referred to the commission.
Last year, Stuff revealed some lenders had been asking courts to ‘‘rubber stamp’’ inflated debts when they knew debtors would not turn up in court to defend themselves.
Justice Sarah Katz revealed the practice in a judgment in an appeal brought by credit card company Diners Club.
She said evidence from the Commerce Commission showed some lenders had taken advantage of the court system when they believed debtors would not contest the claim, and so hearings would go undefended, and the sums sought would not be checked.
Budget Loans is headed by sole director Allan Hawkins, who was jailed in 1992 for fraud involving Equiticorp. The commission was seeking orders banning Hawkins, and his son Wayne Robert Hawkins, who were the directors of the company from being directors of any company.