Almost two weeks after an insurance agency admitted to wrongly freezing his bank account, Tony Portelli is still waiting for the garnishee order against him to be lifted so he can get on with his life.
“At first I saw it as an inconvenience. I didn’t think it was such a problem. But now I’m starting to feel the consequences,” he said yesterday, six days after his story was first reported.
“I can’t even buy Christmas presents and I lost the things I was bidding for on eBay,” Mr Portelli said.
He has spent the past 20 days, since November 24, being helped by family and friends.
Mr Portelli was wrongly caught up in a court order because his flat in St Paul’s Bay forms part of a block that shares the same name, Liliana Apartments, as another down the road that was held responsible for a multiple car crash last year.
Hydraulic fluid from the lift of Block B spilled onto the street, causing a car to skid into three other parked vehicles. Gasan Mamo Insurance held the inhabitants of the entire block responsible and successfully applied the issue of a garnishee order on all the residents.
Mr Portelli, who lives in Block A, was included in the court action because the way his address appears on the Electoral Register does not specify which block he resides in.
According to Gasan Mamo Insurance, several months ago he received a letter warning him that he would face court action. The problem would have been solved, a company spokesman noted, had Mr Portelli replied to the letter, as another innocent recipient had done.
However, Mr Portelli insists he never received the letter. He feels the insurance company should have made more of an effort to ensure he had in fact received the warning before making such a serious move.
Gasan Mamo Insurance agreed with Mr Portelli to lift the garnishee order on December 1 and officially served notice to the court on December 5.
Yet, Mr Portelli’s bank account remains frozen, presumably because Bank of Valletta has not yet processed the order.
When contacted, the bank said it could not give information about specific clients but explained that withdrawals of garnishee orders were usually processed on the same day a notification was received.
Mr Portelli says he sought the advice of the Malta Financial Services Authority, which told him he had to wait at least a fortnight for the garnishee order to be officially dropped.
“It all depends on how much pressure the company’s lawyer places on the court to act swiftly,” Mr Portelli said.
However, when contacted, the MFSA said garnishee orders did not fall under its remit and refused to answer procedural questions.
Meanwhile, Gasan Mamo Insurance, which reiterated its apology for the inconvenience caused and its commitment to compensate Mr Portelli for any expenses incurred, said that it did all it could to unfreeze the account.
Besides having his funds frozen, Mr Portelli also had €126 withdrawn from his account. On this point, the company said there were still a few more procedural steps left for the money to be returned by the courts.
Gasan Mamo pointed out that it followed the due legal process to obtain the garnishee order and its intention was to seek compensation for its clients, the victims of the car accident caused by an “irresponsible act”.
It all depends on how much pressure the company’s lawyer places on the court to act swiftly
“GasanMamo insurance is committed at all times to act in a fair and just manner while providing a quality service to its customers,” it said.
“We apologise for the inconvenience that this incident has caused. We would like to point out that these measures are also taken to seek just compensation and to ensure that our policyholders do not suffer financial loss resulting from having to pay the policy excess and from the loss of a no claims discount.”