Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1495665
3 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 26 MARCH 2023 NEWS KARL AZZOPARDI & LUKE VELLA SCORES of aggrieved customers are considering filing a collective lawsuit against kidnap suspect Christian Borg and his car deal- ership over what they claim are "fraudulent contracts." More than 70 customers of No Deposit Cars are seeking legal ad- vice over the validity of the con- tracts they signed when buying second hand vehicles from Borg's dealership. No Deposit Cars Malta Ltd is owned by Christian Borg, who was charged last year, alongside five others, with kidnapping and threatening a man. Lawyer Jason Azzopardi, who is assisting the customers, told MaltaToday legal action being contemplated concerns four dif- ferent legal avenues. "The first aspect concerns data protection breaches over possible illegal tracking of customers by the company," Azzopardi said. Last week Information and Da- ta Protection Commissioner Ian Deguara, told Times of Malta that the data tracking clauses in the contracts break data protec- tion laws. He said the clauses are "absolutely abnormal... not ac- ceptable... [and] very invasive". The company installs a GPS tracker inside the cars it sells to its customers on a hire purchase basis. Numerous customers have reported that the tracker is used by the company to locate the ve- hicles and repossess them if they are in breach of the contract. Azzopardi said he will also be contesting the car hire purchase agreements based on criminal fraud, to render the bills of ex- change illegal. The civil action will also deal with matters relating to Civil Law and motor vehicle legislation. This newspaper is also informed that victims of No Deposit Cars will be holding a protest outside the company showroom next Fri- day 31 March at 10 am. "We have had enough, it's time we banded together and make our concerns known. It cannot be they continue to get away with it, and nearly every time it's the vic- tims who end up getting the short end of the stick," an irate custom- er who spoke under condition of anonymity told this newspaper. Customers pay no direct depos- it to acquire a car. Instead, they enter into a hire-purchase agree- ment, paying a monthly fee for a fixed number of months, until it is totally paid for. However, numerous customers have claimed to have been sold defective cars with the compa- ny unwilling to make up for the problems. Often, No Deposit Cars cus- tomers have ended up as defend- ants in civil lawsuits filed by the dealership, with the law courts finding in favour of the dealer- ship and its "unfair" contracts. Last month, MaltaToday re- ported the story of customer Ivan Novak, a Slovenian nation- al working in the gaming sector, who has lived in Malta since 2015. He is just one of scores of car buyers who claim they were duped by the car dealership. He had paid €11,400 over five years for a Peugeot 208 hatch- back from the company under a hire-purchase agreement. When he informed No Deposit that he would be paying for the rest of the monthly rates, he was du- ly informed that the transfer of the car's ownership would take around two weeks. "Then around two weeks lat- er, Luke Milton (one of the men charged in the abduction case) who I was told was company di- rector, wanted to speak to me, because something was wrong," Novak told MaltaToday. Milton is also facing charges of fraudu- lently obtaining $700,000 from a car dealer and storing them in a "crypto wallet" to which only he had access. "Milton told me the car could not be transferred to my name, as it was under 'bank ownership'. Instead, he told me to pick anoth- er car from the showroom that would be transferred to me," he said. Novak is yet to receive feedback from No Deposit Cars, believ- ing they are trying to evade him. This newspaper has also seen WhatsApp messages between Novak and Milton, where the No Deposit Cars director can be seen ignoring the messages on several occasions, replying in very short sentences, or not even acknowl- edging Novak, despite the latter being unable to drive his Peugeot. Novak is now stuck with a car he cannot use, despite spending the last three years paying for it. Scores of No Deposit Cars customers seeking collective action against company and owner Christian Borg No Deposit Cars owner Christian Borg