A man who bought a car that was never delivered has sued the dealership for fraud and obtained an injunction to stop his regular payments from being withdrawn.

Dominic Cassar asked the court to declare that the agreement he signed with No Deposit Cars as fraudulent and based on deceit.

He also successfully obtained a decree that freezes all bills of exchange he had signed over the Ford Puma he never received.

Cassar’s saga began when he visited the showroom of Easy Finance Motor House in Burmarrad in February 2021.

He decided on a Ford Puma but the car had some scratches on the back bumper, so the salesman told him it would be fixed before delivery in a couple of weeks’ time.

He was taken to an office where he was asked to sign a draft agreement with No Deposit Cars.

He also paid an amount covering new number plates, the road licence, insurance and the first instalment of 84 bills of exchange, each amounting to €417 and each of which he was asked to sign.

Excuses and threats

Cassar told the court that he then spent weeks chasing the No Deposit Cars salespeople. Every time he called he was given a different excuse.

They told him they were waiting for documentation from the UK so they could register it with Transport Malta, which could take six to eight weeks.

He often drove past the showroom of Easy Finance Motor House in Burmarrad to see whether the car was still there.

One day, he saw it parked outside with new number plates. He checked the chassis number on the windscreen and it corresponded to the chassis number of the car he had bought.

He sent his brother to inquire about the car and was told it had been sold. When he confronted the salespeople and asked for his money back, he was told he had signed a contract and was bound by it.

He then started to receive legal letters from No Deposit Cars Limited and Lion Funding Limited, a company he had never heard of, which was chasing payment for bills of exchange it had received from the car dealership.

They filed garnishee orders against him and got his bank accounts frozen, making it difficult for him to pay his loans and make other purchases.

He filed a complaint with the consumer authority but then dropped the case to be able to file court proceedings.

Madam Justice Joanne Vella Cuschieri upheld his request for an injunction to stop the companies from monetising the outstanding bills of exchange in relation to his car. Lawyer Tracy Cauchi signed the writs.