Insights for consumers
When you apply for a loan, you are responsible for providing accurate information. If a lender later discovers they were given false information, they may take action to minimise their risks.
Amiria borrows money to buy cars
In January 2025, Amiria borrowed money from a lender to buy a car. A week later, she took out another loan from the same lender to buy a second car. The lender took security over both cars for the loans.
Bank statements are fake, say Police
About a month later, the Police informed the lender that the applications for both loans were potentially fraudulent, as the bank statements provided were fake. The bank confirmed this.
Lender decides to repossess cars to mitigate risk
Concerned that the cars securing the loans were ‘at risk’, the lender decided to repossess them without issuing a repossession warning notice.
The repo agent has trouble accessing the cars
A repossession agent met Amiria. By the time the lender confirmed their instructions to repossess the cars, Amiria had locked them in a garage, leaving the agent unable to repossess them. A month later, the repossession agent saw one of the cars parked on the road and towed it. In April, the agent repossessed the other car. He noticed that the vehicle identification number had been ground off and the number plates had been replaced with unregistered plates.
Amira says the cars should not have been repossessed
Amira complained to FSCL that the lender had no grounds to repossess the vehicles.
Amira said she had been making all the loan repayments on time and insisted that she had provided genuine bank statements.
Lender backs own decision
The lender believed that they were entitled to repossess both cars. When the lender discovered Amiria had used altered documents in both loan applications, they were concerned that the cars being used as security over both loans were ‘at risk’. This concern was supported by attempts to alter the car’s identification.
FSCL finds the lender acted properly
We considered it was fair for the lender to repossess both cars. We were satisfied it was reasonable for the lender to treat the cars securing the loans as ‘at risk’ because Amiria had used altered documents to obtain the loans. It was also concerning that the vehicle identification number and number plates had been altered.
We accepted the bank’s advice that the bank statements did not accurately represent their records. We said it was Amiria’s responsibility to ensure the documents supporting the application were accurate.
FSCL’s decision
We decided that Amiria should discontinue her complaint. Amiria did not respond, so we closed our file.
