Loan scam trial | Thousands of alleged victims may be refunded enca.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from enca.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The path has been cleared for the Stellenbosch University Law Clinic to finally launch a class action case against the Lifestyle Direct Group’s bogus loan-application operation.
Legal action against the Lifestyle Direct Group has prompted its founder, Damian Malander, to set up a new debt collections business to recover Lifestyle Direct ‘debt’ from consumers he is alleged to have scammed.
The judgment reveals that the Lifestyle Direct Group, based in Bellville, ran a web of small companies, each with physical offices located across greater Cape Town.
A subsidiary debt collecting company trading as “Lifestyle Legal” functioned as the in-house debt collection agency for the Lifestyle Group, harassing consumers by sending them threatening emails and letters of demand if they reversed the debit orders.
The applicants sought interim relief, ahead of the class action litigation, to shut down the loan-seeking websites in question; stop debiting the bank accounts of those purported to have entered contracts via those websites; stop making payment demands and stop threatening or harassing those people for payment.