I suspect that even the most business savvy readers will find the story of Paul Buckman’s bankruptcy at the hands of the National Australia Bank [NAB] to be both a scandalous and engrossing story of outrageous fraud and regulator indifference. It is all on record and it isn't ficton.

NAB is just one of Australia’s ‘Big 4’ banks caught out but the road to find justice will validate your worst banking nightmares. What makes Paul’s story so amazing is that he didn’t waver until every possible remedy was tackled.

Many Australian franchisees travelled at least some of that journey and for the same result. Smart business investors should be prompted to perform additional due diligence and be wary of lenders.

Here is an extract; the full story of Paul Buckman and NAB is attached at the bottom of what is an introduction to Australian banking 101.

Sir, as a brief overview your bank has in this the Basstech case:

1. You detected forged signatures on your customer’s cheques & chose to ignore that fact.
2. You (the National Australia Bank) then chose not to “enquire of your customer” or to alert them of those detections – that is each incident of “theft & fraud in progress”.
3. You then chose to conspire with the thief to defraud your customer by honouring those forged cheques & illegally debiting your customers account of $238,750 from 152 cheques.
4. You knowingly participated in the conversion of stolen property to cash.
5. You then charged us, your customer, in excess of $21,000 for this privilege. That is you “gained financial advantage by deception” when you charged us in excess of $21,000 in interest & other fees & charges for services not provided on that money illegally debited from our bank account, without our consent, our knowledge or authority.
6. When we detected account irregularities, (and advised National Australia Bank staff of that detection) you then chose to conspire with our financial advisor, Paul Burness then of Scott Partners Malvern Victoria, to place our business under receivership in his hands, then to liquidate our business & assets knowing that you held both factual culpability & liability in the antecedent events leading to our insolvency.
7. You then took possession of & sold at a mortgagee’s auction assets from my fellow directors (ie their family home). In National Australia Bank v Voloshin (NSW Supreme Court 2000) the mere attempt by your bank to repossess a customer’s property under such circumstances was declared “Unconscionable” & was refused.
8. In an effort to negate your legal liabilities to us, your customer, you forced us to bankruptcy.

For Paul Buckman, what he was to encounter next is even more astonishing. His journey took him to State and Federal Police, regulators including; the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, The Australian Securities and Investments Commission, State Fair Trading Commissions, the Banking Ombudsman plus a variety of other avenues including various legal firms and the Public Interest Clearing House (PILCH).

The number of horror stories from NAB customersare endless and it is a standout as the worstbut the big four Australian banksall have similar history.

Anyone that doubts the complaints of break and enter and stolen computers is living in a naïve world. If it happens in franchising, and it has, and global packaging giant Visy can been linked to Hell’s Angels’ debt collection; why would we not believe that Australian banking would be involved in outrageous and illegal practices?

Detached business professionals may feign indifference having not read the full account, but this enthralling story of the responses and attitudes Buckman encountered will confirm that the monster banks are indeed already untouchable masters to government. And on every continent.