Farmers accuse ‘feral’ CBA of ‘greed and indifference’

A NSW family pushed off its farm has told the Federal Court its bank was motivated by ‘greed and indifference’.

A NSW family pushed off its farm by what its barrister called “greed and indifference” spent the day in the Federal Court yesterday going up against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

The Fuge family had been on the land for almost 70 years before the bank seized the property from them in 2016.

Anthony Fuge and his brother Matthew had seen the farm through flood and drought.

They say a grain company failed to pay the family $180,000, and left them out of pocket and unable to meet repayments to the bank.

Peter King, acting for the Fuges, accused Australia’s biggest bank of “unconscionable conduct and 30 breaches of the code of banking practice”.

“I tried everything in my power to get on top of those loans,” Anthony Fuge said. “I think the bank was feral, they hit us with every penalty break.

“I got charged with $1 million with interest in fees in two years.”

He told the court he had never received notice of default or a letter of demand from the bank, and the credit continued after March 2013, despite the debt.

Andre Zahra, acting for CBA, cast it as a case of intimidation against the bank.

“I just wanted to suggest that the bank has not caused you or your brother any damages and this claim for $16m is a way to scare the bank off from claiming back what was still owed,” Mr Zahra said.

The Fuges’ properties were valued at $2.4m when sold, and this was not enough to cover the entire debt.

Mr Zahra said “the bank gave (Anthony Fuge) numerous indulgences”.

There was further turmoil for the Fuges after the foreclosure in 2016, when the stock agents acting for CBA allowed the death of eight of the family’s sheep.

Matthew Fuge posted pictures on social media of the dead animals at the time, saying “the RSPCA has all your names also for your sterling job that you did today ... Thanks again fellas!”

Earlier this week, Mr King suggested the livestock mortgage over 2100 sheep was a forgery, and even in the event that it could be shown to be genuine, Anthony Fuge did not own the sheep, and was therefore unable to create a security interest over the animals.

The case comes at a time when CBA is already under fire from the royal commission’s interim report, released last week, with Kenneth Hayne criticising it for being “economical with the truth”.

The proceedings against the bank, which started on Tuesday, are scheduled to continue for the next two weeks.