Major microlender denies claims of garnishee fraud

This is according to a Business Times report on an investigation carried out by the newspaper. Noting garnishees may be granted only after judgment and after being assigned case numbers and files, the newspaper says its investigation reveals that court documents supporting more than 400 garnishee orders cannot be found at the Krugersdorp and Randburg Magistrates' Courts where they were purportedly granted. With documents missing, court officials have declared the orders 'appear to be fraudulent' as the cases 'do not exist' on their systems. Atlas has denied that it has been involved in the fraud and claims it has been exonerated by the courts. However, in a sworn statement, the taxing master of the Randburg court, Yakad Allay, said that more than 200 Atlas garnishee orders were 'fraudulent'. No case numbers assigned to the Atlas garnishee orders 'are genuine', he said. 'I do not recognise any initials of the clerk' who ostensibly signed the order, he added. Full Business Times report (subscription needed)

An example of how debtors are treated is highlighted in a report in The Times. It says the Business Times investigation found that an Atlas customer who borrowed R8 000, was asked to repay more than R31 000 to clear her debt. This client, who earned less than R8 000 a month, was told in April 2011 to repay R4 030 a month via a fraudulent garnishee order. More than R20 609 was deducted from her salary during 2012, before the Krugersdorp Magistrate's Court issued a letter declaring the garnishee order to be 'fraudulent'. Despite these repayments, a statement issued by Atlas last year claimed that she still owed R11 870, says the report. Full report in The Times

Dave Woollam, director of financial advice company Summit Financial Partners, has denounced Atlas as 'another example of a micro lender acting with impunity with regard to both the spirit and the letter of the law, and bringing disrepute to an industry that plays an important role in our economy'. A BDlive report notes that Atlas has failed to produce copies of the judgments that should have been issued by the courts alongside the garnishee orders. Summit Financial Partners said that it had uncovered about 170 missing Atlas files at the Krugersdorp Magistrate's Court. Charles Gilbert, described in the report as a controversial consumer activist, has raised questions over another 230 Atlas garnishee orders - supposedly issued by the Randburg Magistrate's Court - which also cannot be found. Gilbert and Summit have both now accused Atlas' debt collections arm, Syndicated Debt Collectors, of fabricating court documents. Although an Atlas spokesperson has not denied the garnishee orders are fraudulent, he maintains his company is not the source of wrongdoing, blaming a third party responsible for delivering the applications for garnishee orders to a Krugersdorp court official. He alleges that instead of obtaining legitimate judgments, the third party and/or a court official then constructed fraudulent garnishee orders. Full BDlive report