Criminal, civil and administrative penalties for white collar crime

Submission 72

Rosie Cornell

Senate Standing Committees on Economics

PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
21 February 2016

Re: Inquiry into penalties for white collar crime

Dear Senators
I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this inquiry which fits into other
Parliamentary inquiries where I have raised matters relevant to my own case
involving the National Australia Bank.1 However, I note with some dismay that
once again the wording of the inquiry brief itself and the resultant terms of
reference miss the mark in relation to the widespread fraud perpetrated on
customers of financial institutions. While this inquiry deals with the penalties for
white collar crime there is no avenue to address the matter most urgent to victims
of bank perpetrated fraud such as myself how to get police to investigate so that
this leads to prosecution of those who acted criminally in the first place. Therefore
I find it necessary once again to write my submission addressing only the final
option any other relevant matters.
My submission will be very brief as it seems to me that Parliament is determined to
be seen to act without actually doing anything about addressing the real issues
underlying the inquiries into bank misconduct over the last few years. I know
there was fraud in our case but I was unable to find any agency prepared to
investigate. WA Police assured me it was a Federal Police issue, Federal Police said
it was state; APRA was totally disinterested as was ASIC.
By the time I saw the evidence of fraud we had already lost our properties;2 my
lawyer and barrister must have understood what the documents enclosed within
National Australia Bank v Cornell [2009] WASC 255; Cornell v National Australia Bank [No 2] [2010] WASCA 23.
We lost at Summary Judgment in August 2009, Master Sanderson presiding, subsequently we lost our Appeal in
February 2010, Buss JA, Newnes JA and Jenkins J. NAB settled our damages claim against them in March 2013.
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Criminal, civil and administrative penalties for white collar crime

Submission 72

the banks June 2009 Affidavit3 showed, but either had not read the documents
prior to Summary Judgment or simply decided not to act.4 During a May 2009
conference prior to Summary Judgment the banks lawyer said there had been two
loan applications I assured my legal team that this was not the case, we had only
applied once. This means that the loan was approved on an application we had
neither seen nor authorised.
The incriminating internal bank document within the NAB Affidavit (the eCredit
form) was poorly written and contained fictions of both a financial and personal
nature. If I may be so bold to be flippant; according to this document I am the
most loved woman on earth as I identified no less than four people willing to work
full-time for me for no financial recompense whatsoever. I was also excited to
know that apparently I had gained a son without the hassle of pregnancy,
childbirth and the torture of the teenage years.
My alarm bells began ringing when I finally read the e-credit form in May 2010
after we had already moved to Perth, having exhausted our legal options to save
our farm; [a]lthough table shows customer is unable to meet notational
repayments the following points should be taken into consideration: the points
basically outline predatory lending practices, that to ensure the loan could be paid
out all our assets would be sold. But predatory lending is not illegal in Australia.
However, as the fraud involved fabricating a second application form without our
knowledge or consent, coupled with a failure to inform us of our denied
application, this should have been considered high priority by any law enforcement
agency. It was at this point I phoned all relevant agencies to no avail, there was no
interest in investigating the fraud that had cost us our lifes work.
Eventually I reported the lawyer to the WA Legal Profession Complaints
Committee but by this stage they could not act as he was no longer registered.5 I
filed a complaint with ASIC in June 2010; they were not helpful and did not
investigate my complaint. From memory it was someone at ASIC who suggested
I sue the law firm for our losses as pursuing the bank would be too costly. We
managed to find a lawyer who helped us sue the bank for damages; we settled out
of court for a pittance just to be able to get our life back and start to rebuild a
Sworn by NAB manager Greg Daniel.
My husband was self-representing which meant that we received a copy of the banks affidavit, however, it was
during this critical time that our son became ill with a rare disorder and for some time it was doubtful that he would
live. My lawyer assured me he had read the documents and that there was nothing important in them. He was
wrong, his failure to put the evidence in front of the court ensured our failure.
5 At this stage I did not want to report the barrister as there is a family connection, subsequent discovery of court
documents highlight that I probably should have reported him but that is another story (although entirely relevant to
our case).
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Criminal, civil and administrative penalties for white collar crime

Submission 72

modicum of financial security before retirement. Retirement with current

government policies terrifies us.
I did not make a submission to the inquiry into CBA Impaired Loans despite
evidence that the valuation of our subdivision was dodgy my lack of faith in
Parliaments will to bring banks into line coupled with the wording of the terms of
reference made me doubt that my contribution would matter. I have embarked on
my final year studying law. I am tired of knowing that financial institutions will
continue to evade criminal prosecution while continuing to destroy viable
businesses and stripping assets of vulnerable customers. I am tired of hearing wellconstructed arguments in favour of holding a Royal Commission into the various
fraudulent activities of all financial institutions being ignored.
It is a sorry state of affairs that after reading countless submissions over many
years outlining fraud perpetrated by banks not being investigated by anyone, that
Parliament would call an inquiry into penalties for white-collar crime. I may be
cynical but to me only a corrupt Parliament with close ties to the financial sector
would be so wilfully blind as to ignore the critical factor in this scenario: victims of
financial institutions cannot get a criminal investigation into the fraud in the first
place, so discussion about penalties is a moot point at best.
Thank you for allowing me to make this point. I hope that this inquiry culminates
in a positive change where banks are held accountable for the many frauds they
have been caught out doing. I do not want to destroy our banks, I do not want to
see them fail, I do however want banks to no longer act criminally just because
they can; just because they have been above the law for so long. Criminal
behaviour within the financial services sector can no longer be tolerated.
Regards
Rosie Cornell