EQ Legal pursuing new class action against Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited on behalf of Great Southern investors
“Maybe I wouldn’t have to work three jobs.” That’s this woman’s hope for a new class action targeting Bendigo and Adelaide Bank over $300m of Great Southern investment scheme loans.
NSW
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- Meet the man who lost Ms Ryals and others $400m
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Meredith Ryals just wants to stop working three jobs.
For more than a decade the Port Macquarie teacher, tutor and B&B operator has been repaying a $200,000 debt to Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Limited (BABL) after a financial adviser recommended she borrow against her home to invest in Great Southern agribusiness schemes that later failed.
Earlier this month Ms Ryals joined hundreds of other Great Southern scheme investors who have registered interest in being part of a class action against BABL being explored by Sydney firm EQ Legal.
As many as 5500 investors – who borrowed a combined $300 million – may be eligible to participate in the claim, said EQ Legal’s director Sasha Ivantsoff.
The intention, Mr Ivantsoff said, was to accuse BABL of breaching section 18 of the Competition and Consumer Act, which prohibits misleading or deceptive conduct.
From December 2014, BABL allegedly demanded repayment of loans after a court settlement was reached that acknowledged the Great Southern loans were “valid and enforceable”.
But since then, decisions in NSW, Victoria and South Australia have found loan documents were invalid and that borrowers were not required to repay, Mr Ivantsoff said.
“We claim people were misled into believing they had a legal obligation to repay whereas they actually didn’t,” he told The Daily Telegraph.
“Our hope is to help them recover the money so they can rebuild their lives.”
Ms Ryals said she wanted justice for the bullying phone messages left by BABL’s debt collectors while she taught primary school children.
“They took advantage of middle-wage earners – people who were just trying to better their life,” she said.
Disability pensioner Irene Tsekenis has also registered her interest in the action.
Mrs Tsekenis was working at Qantas in plane preparation when she heard that colleagues had invested in Great Southern.
Mrs Tsekenis borrowed $100,000 against her home on the advice of a different financial adviser to Ms Ryals.
“I’m still paying it off,” said Mrs Tsekenis, who has been unable to work since catching Legionnaires‘ disease while at Qantas.
“To get my money back would make life so much easier for me.”
A BABL spokesman said its “rights and entitlements in relation to the Great Southern loans have been confirmed through extensive legal processes, including via the courts.”
Financial advisers earned commissions of up to 10 per cent from Great Southern, which collapsed in 2009 after attracting about $2.2 billion from investors. The advisers were not employed by BABL.
Great Southern investors who repaid loans after December 2014 can register an interest in the class action at BABLgroupaction.com. There is no cost to register, but there will be a capped fee of $3300 before the action goes ahead.
Mr Ivantsoff said at least 600 investors were needed for the action to go ahead. More than 450 have so far.