Mother slams dealership after intellectually disabled son signs up for $60k car loan

A Brisbane mother has lashed out at a car dealership after her intellectually disabled son was able to sign up for a $60,000 loan on the spot, with ‘every possible accessory’ added to the sale.

A Brisbane mother has revealed she is “disgusted” that a “broken” lending system allowed her intellectually disabled son to be approved for a $60,000 car loan on the spot.

Julie said her son who wished to be referred to as Mr D, has a “visible” disability but was taken advantage of by a car salesman with “every possible accessory” added to the loan in May 2021.

She said her son is unable to write his own name and had only been in casual employment for about two months before his loan was approved.

“To hold a five-minute conversation with him about money and finances, you would pick up that there is a problem,” Julie said.

“I’m absolutely disgusted and broken that the dealership and finance company has allowed this to happen.”

A contract sighted by The Courier-Mail reads that Julie’s son was previously employed as a “disability worker” and was still “living with family” in Queensland despite purchasing the car in Western Australia.

Julie said when she questioned these “lies” she was asked by the finance company why she had not “acted sooner”.

Brisbane mum Julie says a car salesman took advantage of her son.

GetMyRefund confirmed that a complaint against Allied Retail Finance has been lodged with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.

But Julie said her family was “struggling” to keep up the car repayments for the sake of her son’s credit rating while waiting for a dispute outcome from the AFCA.

Mr D, who is back on Centrelink only receives about $600 a fortnight with the car repayments totalling $727 a month.

“The system is broken,” Julie said.

The WA car dealership declined to comment, stating it was with AFCA and the financier was managing the matter.

Get My Refund owner Carly Woods said “irresponsible lending rates will get so much worse as the bank will be held less accountable than ever”.

Meanwhile, AFCA’s Lead Ombudsman, Banking and Finance, Natalie Cameron said “our aim is to help consumers and financial firms reach agreement during the earlier, less formal stages of our process, and the vast majority of cases that reach us are resolved that way.

“In the past financial year, we closed more than 71,000 complaints, with nearly 50,000 of those complaints resolved by agreement between the parties or in favour of the consumer. More than $200 million was provided to consumers through AFCA’s dispute resolution services in those 12 months.”

“We are committed to ensuring that people with accessibility requirements can readily use our service, working with them to see how we can adapt to meet their needs.”

New data released in September 2022, by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), estimates a further $1.6 billion is yet to be paid to an estimated 2.7 million consumers for remediation for both junk insurance and non-compliant advice.

Originally published as Mother slams dealership after intellectually disabled son signs up for $60k car loan