PE High Court expected to hear testimony in controversial car scheme

01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author

The Port Elizabeth High Court is expected to hear first hand testimony on Thursday in the controversial R699-car scheme.

The court is expected to hear that a class action should be brought against several banks to declare the contracts of hundreds of participants in the car scheme, null and void.

Hundreds of consumers are being represented by PE lawyer Duncan Heuer.

The court action follows the collapse of an agreement between Hong Kong based company Blue Lakes and the local Satinsky Group, which marketed the subsidised scheme in South Africa.

Absa, Nedbank and Standard Bank, have filed papers opposing the law suit.

According to a recent report, Absa said its exposure in the scheme was in the region of 700 million rand.

Matters came to a head when disgruntled car owners were not reimbursed their monthly sum for driving around with advertisements for the scheme on their cars.

Many customers were subsequently unable to afford the full monthly instalments when the payments were stopped.