18/06/2026
In the Western Cape High court after one of the major financial services providers sent an adverse credit record against our client to the credit bereu for a loan that was fraudulently obtained,we sued the company for a million rand and since nobody showed up from the other side,a default judgment was granted in our favour as prayed for.
What happened is that our client only discovered when she wanted to purchase an asset on credit that she has an unpaid loan of about R80G,she was surprised because she had never taken a loan anywhere in her whole life!
She was given the details of the financial institution and upon investigation it was obvious that someone impersonated her!the impersonator even went on to open a bank account in her names and received the money and vanished in to thin air.
Our gripe was firstly with the financial institution as to how did they let something like this happen with the Financial Intelligence Center Act (F**A) in operation.We discovered that the loan application was done telephonically and there was no vigilance in verification of the identity of the applicant.Our argument was that had they followed the National Credit Act and F**A to the latter,they could have arrested the would be fraudster,therefore it was due to their negligence that they succeeded.
They did not stop there,after withdrawing all the funds,only one instalment was paid,then our client found her credit record affected negatively hence she couldn’t obtain a credit for the asset she so desperately needed,this affected her emotionally and psychologically as her employer even had to withdraw the subsidy due to non-usage.The financial institution,after a lengthy engagement with our office and pushing us from pillar to post,eventually conceded that the loan was not obtained by our client,they had to write it off…again we had to fight to get the records updated at the credit bureau which eventually happened and our client was able to get the asset!
It was now time to take the financial institution to the cleaners for their negligence,we honestly believe that it was an internal job,we sued for R1M ,since the company is based in the Western Cape,we issued summons in the Western Cape high court.
The court agreed with us that the company’s conduct amounted to a delict and she has to be compensated.
The second leg is to take the battle to the bank that allowed the impersonator to open a bank account in our client’s names…we served the summons,the bank is promising us a fierce battle but we are not retreating!