No Deposit Cars case: Magistrate refers Malta’s bills of exchange procedure to EU court

A magistrate is seeking direction from the European Court of Justice as to whether Malta’s bills of exchange law is compliant with EU directives.

The referral was made by Magistrate Victor Axiak in one of the many court cases involving No Deposit Cars, the car dealership owned by the notorious Christian Borg.

After yet another appeal against the execution of bills of exchange by the company that the magistrate noted was only “one of an ever-growing series of appeals”, Axiak decided to refer the matter to the ECJ.

He has asked whether Maltese legal procedures in relation to the execution of bills of exchange that preclude him from examining the contract that precedes the issuance of the bills, go against several EU directives.

The alleged victim in this case has argued in court that the exceptions in an exchange deal should be limited and restricted to the document itself and should not be concerned with other obligations.

The magistrate noted that Article 253 of the Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure that was introduced in 2004 says that courts should not (except in cases of fraud or a causa illecita) consider as serious and valid reasons for the execution of the bills of exchange, the exception that the object sold to the debtor is defective and not of agreed quality.

The customer had opposed the process by which Princess Holdings Ltd tried to deem executable eight expired bills of exchange on the basis that the vehicle sold to him was defective and had to be returned.

From a Corsa to a Peugeot to a Hyundai

The customer had testified that he had signed a contract with No Deposit Cars Malta Limited to purchase a Vauxhall Corsa for €5,400, with a €90 monthly fee over a period of five years.

However, the car was defective and a second agreement was signed to return the Vauxhall Corsa and take a Peugeot 308 instead for the price of €12,000, with a monthly €200 fee over a five-year period. The paid bills were not refunded.

The Peugeot 308 was also defective and another agreement was signed for a Hyundai i10 valued at €9,000, with a monthly €150 payment over a five-year period.

This car was also defective and the customer tried to terminate the agreement with the company, but was ignored.

The bills of exchange were transferred to Princess Holdings Limited another one of Christian Borg’s companies.

The customer said he was shocked when months later he received an official letter demanding him to pay eight bills of exchange of €200 each for the second agreement he had made, even though the car had been returned to the company.

The customer insisted in his testimony that No Deposit Cars Malta Limited acted fraudulently as it kept all the bills of exchange agreed with the company even though the cars had been returned for being defective.

MaltaToday is aware that other similar court cases have been put on hold pending the decision of the ECJ.

No Deposit Cars Malta, a car hire-purchase dealership in Qormi, has become synonymous with accusations of fraud and unfair practices.

Dozens of desperate customers reached out to all media news outlets in Malta in November 2021, pleading with journalists to go public with their stories about this company, that they accused of scamming, defrauding and even violently threatening them.

People were left with frozen bank accounts, cars they cannot drive and with no money to fight back. One name kept cropping up - Christian Borg, at the time director and owner of No Deposit Cars Malta in Qormi and Easy Finance MotorHouse in Burmarrad (now closed).

Kidnapping

In January 2022 five men were charged with abducting a man in Rabat. They were accused of beating him up and threatening him.

The victim managed to escape, leading to the arrest of none other than Christian Borg and his associates Thorne Mangion, Tyson Grech, Burton Azzopardi, and Jeremy Borg. A sixth man, Luke Milton was subsequently charged as well.

Subsequently, more alleged victims reached out to MaltaToday and their stories all told a similar pattern.

Defective cars, false promises, endless contracts, intimidation, tracked cars, frozen bank accounts and lost cases in court. The contracts that MaltaToday had received included vague terms and conditions that gave the company endless reasons to re-acquire the car without notifying the customers.

The dealership hands over a car to a customer without a down payment, with an agreement to pay a monthly fee over a number of years through bills of exchange, until the car is fully paid and then transferred to its rightful owner.

The local courts have not overruled the fine print on the contracts and eyes are now set on the ECJ’s direction.

The company has denied any wrongdoing. The company has claimed the no deposit strategy is a risky venture that allows customers to acquire a car with no upfront payment, which justifies the draconian action taken when monthly payments are not honoured.

This March, tens of alleged victims teamed up and filed a judicial protest against the company and Christian Borg, claiming to have fallen victims to fraud and criminal conspiracy amongst other crimes, inviting the police to investigate.