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Paul Buckman and Basstech - 1999 - Victoria - National Australia Bank

Tue, 06/19/2007 - 20:46 — Arthur Cristian
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Buckman and his partners ran a small business, Basstech Pty. Ltd., in regional Victoria servicing the refining and manufacturing sectors across Australia and internationally with electronic repair, calibration and National Association of Testing Authorities’ (NATO) certification services.

In May 1999, the directors uncovered an incidence of theft from their company perpetrated by Mr ‘Harman’ (name changed), their financial controller. His principal method of theft was to forge signatures on cheques. He also forged signatures on cheques to pay legitimate creditors, to help him hide his activities. This theft took the form of processing legitimate creditor payments through the accounting system, then writing the cheques payable to either himself and depositing into his bank account, or payable as ‘Cash’ cheques. This process effectively wrote the creditor invoice as a liability out of the accounting system, and provided the illusion that Basstech debt to creditors had been discharged when it hadn’t.

On 9th October 2001, Harman was sentenced to 2 years 9 months in prison for theft, making and using false documents. Harman pleaded guilty to all 413 charges covering 184 cheques. Of these 184 cheques some, bearing forged signatures, were used to pay legitimate creditors so convictions for ‘making false documents’ were only recorded. The breakdown was: Theft: total value $231,400; Making False documents (forging signatures on 152 cheques): $238,750. A value of around $7,300 went to legitimate creditors – not theft but still bearing forged signatures, a criminal offence.

Of the 184 cheques, 71 were made payable as ‘Cash’ & converted to cash by NAB staff totaling $133,757. Of those, 35 were referred to the NAB bank manager for explicit signature verification and clearance, including one to the value of $10,173 with teller’s comments on the reverse of that cheque stating, ‘Chq faxed – signature not on system’. Regardless of forged signatures, $10,173 was paid across the counter – no questions asked. The first of these cheques bearing forged signatures was referred to Basstech’s bank manager, for explicit clearance by another banker, on the 1st of May 1998, two months after the fraud commenced.

Basstech directors uncovered the fraud in mid May 1999. The bulk of the fraud occurred over a seven month period - November 1998 ($40,000), December 1998 ($29,000), January 1999 ($18,000), February 1999 ($36,500), March 1999 ($16,000) April 1999 ($14,000) and May 1999 ($54,400). The amounts converted to cash by the NAB across the counter for November and December 1998 and May 1999 were $37,200, $23,500 and $25,900 respectively.

Details of the case were outlined in evidence to the Country Court Melbourne on October 1 2001, re The Queen v ‘Harman’ P00980076, and in the transcript of two recorded interviews between Harman and the Victoria Police investigating officer. Both the County Court and the defendant accepted Buckman’s evidence. Harman pleaded guilty on all charges.

The issue now is the National Australia Bank’s responsibility and culpability in these events, their duty of care, their application of due diligence as befits the concept of a ‘Diligent and Prudent’ banker. Buckman’s understanding of the Cheques Act 1986, and of regulatory responsibility, is that it is incumbent upon banks and financial institutions to perform the clearance process to validate that a cheque presented for payment is a legal document. In settled law, it appears that “Fraud vitiates everything, even judgments and orders of the court” (McDonnell & Monroe, 1952: p.3).

According to Buckman’s reading of the law of cheques, in view of the meaning of ‘Non Negotiable’ and the effect that a crossing (printed upon cheques) has on ownership and as direction by the cheque signer to his/her bank, this direction by the signer is the act that gives the bank its sole mandate to conduct business upon the signer’s behalf. Without this mandate the bank has no legitimate authority to remove funds from the customer’s bank account. The bank has no legitimate title to those moneys that are the subject of fraud. The NAB has removed and continues to hold those moneys illegally.

The NAB, as custodian and trustee of Basstech’s account, cleared 152 cheques bearing forged signatures, to the value of $238,750 from the business account, representing 25% of the company’s annual receipts, forcing the company into insolvency. NAB staff had physically sighted 35 of 71 ‘Cash’ cheques and still converted them to cash despite forged signatures, cheques totaling $133,757. In addition, over the relevant period the NAB charged Basstech $21,348 in interest, fees and charges on those moneys that had been stolen with the bank’s acquiescence.

The NAB then used that insolvent condition as a trigger to enact provisions of their debentures held over Basstech’s assets. The bank then appointed a receiver and manager, Scott Partners, in late August 1999 to strip and sell the business and assets. Subsequently the bank repossessed further assets from Buckman’s partners and disposed of them at a mortgagee’s auction.

The company’s operational assets were sold by the bank in late September on knock-down terms. Assets included laboratory equipment ($50-60,000 of test equipment for certification), vehicles, office furniture, repair workshop, lathes, PC network and five vehicles. The receiver apparently took tenders, and got two offers – $30,000 and $60,000. The higher offer also demanded a proviso that all staff entitlements were paid out.

The business, including goodwill (names, logos), went down the drain. A dozen people in a regional area lost their jobs. The business had been growing rapidly. Gross receipts prior to the closure totaled $600,000 (1995-96), $800,000 (1996-97) and $1.04m. (1997-98). Receipts in 1998-99 were on track for $1.6m. Trade was prevented in May and June 1999, but receipts reached $1.45m, with $100,000 of signed purchase orders which couldn’t be filled.

Buckman and his partners were then forced into bankruptcy, the partners in March and Buckman in June 2000.

In summary, Buckman and his partners detected the forged signatures in September 1999, not the NAB through their encashment cheque clearing process. Moreover, many of the 152 cheques bearing forged signatures were faxed to the bank’s account manager in Bairnsdale, for explicit signature verification, yet they were still cleared.

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6. Master Harrison, of the New South Wales Supreme Court, applied this reasoning in a recent case with similarities to the Buckman case. The bank customer and defendant Roman Voloshin had defaulted on his mortgage payments because of cheque fraud by a third party. Master Harrison commented: “It is my view that it is at least arguable that the plaintiff’s [the NAB] conduct in seeking to enforce the mortgage is unconscionable with the consequence that the court will decline to permit the National Bank to enforce its legal rights.” (National Australia Bank v Voloshin, 2000, par.21)

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Note: Updated Tuesday 2nd February 2010 6.40pm Sydney Time.

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All religions promote discrimination and division, leading to hatred and even violence and murder. None of them have yet to produce a remedy to all the suffering, poverty, unhappiness and discrimination in the world. If any religion truly had the remedy to all the suffering on earth, there would no longer be any suffering. What have Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, atheism and the New Age done to end the suffering in the world?

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The Love for Life website also shows how the Rule of Law, the Bar, the Government, the Monarchy, the system of commerce, the local, national and multi/trans-national private corporations, all the courses and careers on offer from our universities, all the educators, scientists, academics and experts, the aristocrats and the Establishment bloodlines have also done NOTHING to end the suffering in the world. The website maps the insanity of a world where there is no help for those in need, just as there was no help available for us when we were victims of terrible bank fraud: http://loveforlife.com.au/court_case (orchestrated, condoned and protected by an international crime syndicate/terrorist organisation of judges, barristers, registrars, lawyers, politicians, banksters, big business representatives, media moguls and other lackeys who, all together, put up a wall of silence despite our trying many, many avenues. After the family home was stolen and business destroyed we were left close to poverty and destitution caring for 4 young daughters. Three years later not much has changed regardless of all our efforts. Where were all the followers of all the religions to help us? Or do we have to be members of those religions to receive help from others involved in them?

We have been accused of being anti - Jewish because we had posted an excerpt from James von Brun's book: Kill the Best Gentiles! http://loveforlife.com.au/node/6054 in which he blames Jews for the problems of the world. Obviously this is not our view because of what we have stated above. We do not hate anyone, whatever religion they follow. We are always open to talk to any religious leader or politician and meet with any judge, member of the Bar, experts, academics, educators etc to share the remedy we offer that heals all the divisions between MAN and MAN, and MAN and the EARTH.

Today, a representative of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies is threatening to close the website down, because they have decided it is anti - Jewish and that we promote racism. What has the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies done to end the suffering in the world? Can they show that they are concerned with the suffering of ALL men, women and children AND ARE SEEN TO BE DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT or are they only concerned with Jewish affairs? If so, they, along with all the other religions that only care for their own, are part of the problem, not part of the solution. The man who rang Arthur today was only concerned with Jewish affairs; he was not interested in our intentions or in anybody else, just as most Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Catholics, etc, are only interested in their own. While we separate ourselves into groups, dividing ourselves from others with rules, regulations, rituals, procedures and conditions, we will never solve our problems.

No matter what we in the Western World Civilisation of Commerce have been promised by our politicians, religious leaders, scientists, educators, philosophers, etc, for the past two hundred years, all we have seen is ever-increasing destruction of men, women and children and the earth. None of the so-called experts and leaders we have been taught to rely on are coming up with a solution and none of them are taking full-responsibility for the fact that they can't handle the problem. All religious books talk about end times full of destruction and suffering but why do we have to follow this program when there is an alternative to hatred, mayhem and death? Why are our leaders following the program of destruction and death rather than exploring the alternatives? It seems that any mainstream politician, priest or academic are only interested in supporting the RULES OF THE DIVIDE, that maintain the haves and the have nots. For 200+ years, 99% of the world population have been so trained to pass on their responsibility for themselves, others and the earth, that the 1% of the population that make up the leaders of the rest of us are making all the decisions leading to the destruction of all of us and the earth. Let's not forget the education system that brainwashes the 99% of the population that we are free and have equal rights while, in fact, we are feathering the nests of those at the top.

At the root of all our problems is self-centredness, an unwillingness nurtured by the Establishment that keeps us concerned only with our own needs rather than the needs of others around us and the Earth. Instead of creating and releasing acts of love for those around us as gifts to benefit them and the earth, we take, take and take, until there is nothing left. The whole point of the Love for Life website is to show people the root of all our problems and to share the remedy. The extensive research library is there to attract browsers and to provide access to information not available through mainstream channels. If the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies can, after careful examination of our work, prove that anything we are saying is wrong, we will be happy to accept their proof. If they cannot, and they are still insistent on closing the website down, they will be showing themselves to be traitors to MAN because they are not interested in pursuing any avenue that can end the suffering in the world.

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If we truly want peace on earth and freedom for all, we have to let go of all that which keeps us divided, and come together as MAN, conscious living co-creators of creation. The Love For Life website offers a remedy to the problems we all face in the form of DO NO HARM COMMUNITIES: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/3641 For more details see here: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/6511 and here: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/3385 - We also highly recommend that everyone read the brilliant Russian books called The Ringing Cedars: http://loveforlife.com.au/node/1125 - The Love For Life homepage/front-page also provides lots of inspiring remedy based information: http://loveforlife.com.au - If you want to be kept up to date with our work please register to the Love For Life mailing list here: http://loveforlife.com.au/content/09/05/14/campaign-mailing-list We usually send two postings per month. Presently there are over 4600 registrations reaching over 200,000 readers globally. The website now receives over 7 million strikes per month with January 2010 reaching almost 7.2 million strikes.

Conscious Love Always
Arthur and Fiona Cristian
Love For Life
17th June 2009