A Co Tyrone businessman has filmed the unscrupulous tactics used by Bank of Ireland employees to recover debts after his business was placed into liquidation.
John Conway, the founder of Meteor Electrical in Cookstown, lost almost everything during the 2009 downturn and he has since been locked in a legal battle with the Bank of Ireland.
The contents of explosive video footage involving two Bank of Ireland debt collectors was broadcast on BBC’s Spotlight.
Filmed in the former Meteor offices, the two women, who Mr Conway said were from the commercial finance team, boast about methods they have employed to extract funds from struggling debtors.
In more than 30 hours of CCTV footage captured in 2009 one of the bank officials admitted to:
- regularly telling lies that she says could result in her being sent to prison
- asking for relevant transaction history to be deliberately cut out of an insurance claim she was due to file
- being laughed at by other Bank of Ireland colleagues for her ruthlessness
- doing “anything to get money” owed to the bank
John Conway speaks of his shock at the bank officials' tactics to recover debt
Her colleague said she:
- called a debtor when she knew he was taking his mother to chemotherapy treatment
- deliberately targeted one debtor who was ‘rude’ to her, claiming he was “dead meat”
- pretended to a debtor who went out of business that they would take him to court for a second time to extract more from him, even though this was not legally possible
The two Bank of Ireland officials were sent into Meteor offices to gather information which might help retrieve monies the bank felt was owed to it.
Bank official one was named on Spotlight as Kelley Toner, who has since left Bank of Ireland.
Bank official two was named as Sarah Breen.
Two former Meteor employees were asked to help with the process. In the footage the two Bank of Ireland employees are in conversation with one of the former Meteor employees.
The pair tell the Meteor employee how they have the reputation for being a ruthless duo.
Laughing, the second official recounts how her colleague demanded that she call one debtor who was taking his mother for chemotherapy. The second official said: “I was giving him a bye ball because obviously his mother is dying." She [official One] says "ring him, ring him now”.
Official Two explains how she will not tolerate a debtor being “rude” to her. She described one unnamed debtor from an electrical company as “dead meat” because she felt he had been rude to her in an early conversation.
She said: “Whatever it takes to get him. I’ll have him. He’ll not get away.”
In another exchange Official One asks the former Meteor employee to cut out relevant transaction history with regards to an insurance claim against one of Meteor’s customers.
Mr Conway said that this was her changing records to validate a false claim.
Official One: “I wanted... I wanted... I can’t give her this history. Can you cut your history off?
Ex Meteor employee: “Aye.”
Official One: “And date.”
Ex Meteor employee: “Yip.”
Official One: “Can you? Print it like with those two off for the insurer.”
Ex Meteor employee: “So what do you want me to print off this screen...”
Official One: “These two, you want to print it until 19/05/09.”
Ex Meteor employee: “Ok. Do you want to take those two there off, there’s a contra and a reverse contra and just don’t draw any attention to it.”
Official One: “Yeah take that off and I’ll try that. I’m going to go to prison.”
Official Two: “I’m not going with ya.”
Official One: “I’m a liar.”
In the CCTV footage, Official One claimed that she and her colleague will do anything to retrieve money from debtors.
She said: “We do have a great reputation. Nothing defeats us. Everybody will say if there’s any money to be got, go down and speak to them and they’ll get it.”
She added: “All I’m going to say, you’ll be visiting me in prison, I have told that much lies, I’m scared for my life.”
Official One also suggested that her methods of debt collecting were well known by her colleagues in the office in the Bank of Ireland.
She said: “They are literally in the office in stitches at me.”
Mr Conway said: “I am not angry with the women in the footage. I have sympathy for them. They were doing a job and just happened to be the ones to get caught. This is a cultural problem.”
He continued: “Despite the fact that the contents of the video broadcast was sent to Bank of Ireland they have never acknowledged any wrongdoing on their part or that of their employees nor has any member of the bank apologised for the treatment received by Meteor and my family.
“In relation to the allegations of fraud, the report produced by the fraud investigator is replete with inaccuracies and inconsistencies.
“The ongoing litigation will provide me with a welcome opportunity to demonstrate that these allegations of fraud are wholly without foundation.
“Regarding the alleged police investigation, I have never been spoken to by PSNI.
“The report to PSNI was not made by BOI until five years after the liquidation and only after I indicated my intention to secure the rights to sue BOI on behalf of Meteor.
“A High Court judge has recently given judgment wherein he confirms that he has not been satisfied that there is any live PSNI investigation.”
A police spokesman said: “We can confirm a complaint was made to us last year and there is an ongoing investigation. As there is a live investigation it would not be appropriate to comment further on the details of it at this time.”
At its height, Meteor Electrical in Cookstown employed 200 people, was making £150,000 a day in sales and was turning over millions every year, according to Mr Conway.
It sold electrical equipment wholesale with the promise of next day delivery anywhere in Ireland.
He began the business from a farm shed in the evenings while working for the then Northern Ireland Electricity Board by day. Due to the amount of dollar and euro transactions Meteor carried out, Mr Conway hedged currencies – a common method of attempting to lessen the impact of fluctuations in foreign currencies.
The currency hedging went wrong in 2008 when the pound fell steeply and Meteor lost close to £3 million. This combined with the economic downturn led to the collapse of the company, a major employer in Co Tyrone.
The Bank of Ireland, Mr Conway said, had a commercial arrangement providing finances against Meteor’s sales. The bank claimed Meteor owed it upwards of £1 million.
Mr Conway said he installed CCTV footage with sound recording after being told of untoward behaviour by the Bank of Ireland staff.
“It was a big decision to make,” he said, adding that one of the things that helped make his mind up was when he found out that the Bank of Ireland had been calling one of his sons on his mobile phone at night.
“When I saw the [CCTV] footage I couldn’t believe it. I was completely shocked. This is the sort of stuff that nobody would ever believe if I hadn’t have had the footage.”
His three sons now run meteor.com, an online electrical business.
Bank of Ireland statement in full:
Meteor Controls International Ltd. (‘Meteor’) ceased trading on June 2 2009 and went into liquidation on 23 June 2009. According to the statement of affairs signed by former director Mr John Conway, Meteor had debts totalling in excess of £7.6 million on the date of liquidation.
Meteor had traded in the construction sector in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and in addition to the collapse in that sector Meteor also suffered significant foreign exchange losses.
Bank of Ireland was one of Meteor’s biggest creditors, providing cash flow to the company right up to its liquidation. The liquidator was not appointed by the bank.
Notwithstanding this, Mr Conway alleges that Bank of Ireland is responsible for the demise of Meteor. He does so in his defence of High Court proceedings taken against him by the bank in 2010.
The allegations made by Mr Conway continue to be subject to ongoing legal proceedings before the courts in Northern Ireland between Mr Conway and the bank. Mr Conway’s allegations are all denied and are being fully defended by the bank.
Bank of Ireland has suffered significant losses arising from its support of Meteor through two facilities:
- The first facility was a commercial finance facility under which the bank purchased Meteor’s book debts. The collection of the book debts purchased by the bank produced recoveries significantly below those which the bank would normally expect.
In the course of investigating why that was the case the bank identified numerous irregularities in the operation of the commercial finance facility by Meteor.
Those irregularities were reported to the bank’s fraud insurers. The fraud insurers appointed specialist forensic accountants who conducted their own investigation into the invoices which Meteor had submitted for purchase by the bank.
Other relevant material was provided by the bank to those parties working with the insurers. As a result of these investigations the fraud insurers made a substantial payment to the bank in respect of invoices which insurers considered to be fraudulent or of no value.
This operation of this commercial finance facility is now the subject of a criminal complaint of fraud, made by Bank of Ireland against Meteor to the PSNI, and which is under current investigation by the PSNI.
- The second facility was a loan made to Meteor to allow it time to meet a liability which accrued in respect of foreign exchange transactions.
Legal proceedings by the bank against Mr Conway, arising from his personal guarantee in respect of a loan advanced to Meteor to allow it time to meet liabilities to the bank under foreign exchange contracts, are ongoing.
Mr Conway has provided the media with secretly recorded video footage of bank employees engaged in the collection of the book debts which the bank purchased from Meteor.
The only video footage seen by the bank is highly edited and was made after Meteor entered liquidation. It is overlaid with commentary that is highly selective and out of context.
The bank has requested a copy of the full and unedited footage, but to date Mr Conway has failed to provide same.
The bank has a code of conduct which it values highly and any departure from this code of conduct by bank employees is treated very seriously.
The bank is by law prevented from divulging personal information regarding employees or ex-employees.
Given both the ongoing High Court proceedings and PSNI investigations the Bank is precluded from commenting further on the matter.
