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Viewpoint 001
Banking experiences of Trevor Hosten
ONLY when you are a victim can you comprehend the injustices of the system, and thus seek to change it. When good men remain silent, evil prevails. Local banks are getting away with far too much.
1. 1973-1984 Enjoyed satisfactory relationship with Bank of Commerce, Woodbrook branch.
2. 1984 Country's economy collapsed, Imports determined by ECO/EC1. Many established business went under: Kirpalanis, Glendenings, Stephens & Johnson, Habibs, Ross Drugs, Squizums, Earnest Viera Ltd. etc.
3. Bank of Commerce appoint receivers to secure bank's $410,000 O/D. Receivers sell $550,000 inventory for $73,000, pay themselves $35,000 and give bank $38,000. The banks actually encourage this indiscriminate practice without due care and attention by their agents acting on their behalf, as they can always sue the borrower to recover shortfalls. So the bank sued me for the difference of $372,000 and refused to negotiate a settlement of anything less.
4. 1987. Workers bank foreclosed on my home and refused to continue paying Nem-will coverage premiums as they had previously done. A fire took place on the tenanted property and the bank sued me to recover shortfalls, while consecutively advertising my highlighted name in “For sale by Mortgage”
5. 1996. I tried to re-float my business and got approval for International Trade Financing of $1M US. All other credit reports including local General Credit was satisfactory, but the Connecticut based lender wanted a letter of introduction from my bankers BOC, with whom we had discussed the turnaround . See from the bank dated April 24 1996 deliberately and intentionally killing any chance of my receiving funding, part of which was to restructure & pay them off.
6. 1996. Visited FCB to reschedule and possibly repay mortgage loan on foreclosed property and met their Hamlyn Pantin who was very obnoxious, exclaiming within the first 60 seconds, “If you are the Trevor Hosten from Seaview Gardens, I will not waste my time nor the bank's time”, without hearing my offer of settlement.
7. 1998 Had course to correct a staff member of West Mall branch of Bank of Commerce, and preceded to send my driver to cash a customers cheque. This bank employee who was a supervisor at the bank told a Jr. staff “doh cash dah cheque fuh he”. My driver called advising me of this, and upon my instructions not to leave without they giving a reason, he returned with the notion “signature irregular” written on the cheque. On contacting the customer she insisted this was in fact her signature and called the Manager, following which I got the cheque cashed.
8. 1995. Scotia Park & Pembroke wrote a letter to American Express apologizing for bouncing my cheque despite having funds in my account. I insisted they forward this letter with the replacement cheque to American Express VIA COURIER to avoid late payment status, and they insisted they would not pay the cost. Even for their mistake.
9. 1997. We forwarded a $65,000 deposit to Royal Bank, West Mall which was refused saying the account was closed. It was later revealed that the Manager unilaterally closed the account because of information deemed to him as “unfavorable credit reports”, and bouncing three incoming cheques unknown to us. BANKS SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO CLOSE AN ACCOUNT WITHOUT GIVING NOTICE.
10. 2000 & 2001. On two occasions, I approached Republic Bank in Ellerslie, and Park Street to cash cheques, which they refused to cash because the writer of the cheque was not at home when they called to verify “if they wrote the cheque”. This is not banking.
11. Dec. 1999. Wrote Republic bank Tragarete road pointing out lucid imbalances in our banking relationship. On receipt, the bank immediately closed the account, bouncing 7 cheques written even before the letter, with funds in the account , and immediately removed the lifeblood of my business, their credit card terminal, with absolutely no prior notice to us that we should discontinue writing cheques. This was done by a banking outfit who see themselves as infallible and powerful, to whom the customer should neither censure nor complain to.
12. 2000 We approached Royal Bank Maraval for processing facilities to which they were circuitous, and on my Manager convening a meeting with staff of that Dept., we were all told by their David Carew that Republic Bank told them not to give us this facility, and that were we reported to MATCH.
We forwarded this information to our Attorneys who wrote Republic Bank challenging them to prove they ever had a problem in our previous 3 year use of their terminals to which they denied ever reporting us to Match. It was a lie fabricated by Royal BANK, to cause commercial to bear on us, making it difficult for us to prosper and succeed in business. Regardless of how much we argue with them, sending them relevant and supportive information like our D&B 1A2 rating, etc. We approached FCB who advised that because they foreclosed my Mortgage 14 years ago, they cannot grant me their facility.
13. 2000. Every year of my Company's operations has been profitable and supported by Audited Financials, in December 2000 we sought to obtain a 50% mortgage and was outright refused by Royal Bank without even asking for anything whatsoever. Why? Because we had course in the past to write Peter July about the behavior of this officer who now was at their Merchant Bank, and this is his vindictiveness, his power to refuse. We wrote his boss on December 30 2000 and enclose his sarcastic response telling us simply, if we don't like how they treat us, take our business elsewhere. In his penultimate paragraph, he speaks of “not comfortable with the risk involved”. What informed decision could he have made without having all relevant and supporting documents? The “risk” therefore is to deny TREVOR HOSTEN access to all their products and services for non other than pettiness and spite.
14. While we suffer this fate, it must not go unnoticed how unleveled the playing field is, considering the banks write-off, erase, forgive and forget of $8M to Lenny SAITH, or of advancing and being stuck with a $100M advancement to the owner of three failed airlines, Leslie SAMAROO, or for FCB to accept the surreptitious machinations of another client, GILLETTE, and continue an unperturbed mutual banking relationship. There is absolutely NO WAY any NEGRO businessman would enjoy any of these privileges.
PS: My Company recently advertised ONE vacancy, and received 537 applications. While the banks feel they are deliberately denying their products and services to TREVOR HOSTEN, not on facts, but pure malevolence so as to cause commercial pressure to bear resulting in my eventual demise, it is by extension against the creation of Jobs, and greater downstream spending for other goods and services .
Trevor Hosten |
