High Court Delivers Solid Blow To Banks

It's about time too. Banks in this country think that they are God's gift to the Malaysian public and have time and again screwed the very people who pay their salaries including the fat bonuses. This time around the courts put them in their place and instead of allowing them to take the easy way out and shaft some innocent person because the banks are too lazy and too arrogant to take responsibility, it made them pay compensation amounting to several hundred thousand ringgit. The full story here....

....... Two former company directors, who were wrongly listed by a bank as loan defaulters, won RM550,000 in damages for loss of reputation.

High Court Justice Hishamuddin Yunus ruled there was evidence that the loan of RM549,640 was granted by the bank through forged signatures of the former directors, Dr Dzul Khaini Husain and Siak Mei Ying, who purportedly acted as guarantors.

The judge ruled that the bank having listed the duo’s names in the Financial Information System, a system containing information on a person’s financial status and accessible by most banks, had committed conspiracy to injure their reputation.

The judge awarded RM400,000 to Dr Dzul Khaini and RM150,000 to Siak.

The sums were awarded after the court allowed their counter-claims against the bank with costs.

The bank had originally sued them as well as Otahulu Industries (M) Sdn Bhd and Behrouz Maghsoudi for defaulting on the loan sum.

However, the bank subsequently withdrew the action against Dr Dzul and Siak as the Chemistry Department report confirmed that the signatures were not theirs.

***** It is hoped in future that banks be swatted down at every turn when their avarice and couldn't-care-less-for-the-public attitude gets the better of them.