Banks, Estonia, Financial Services, Legislation, Transport

An anonymous customer of Swedbank Leasing is accusing the company of submitting forged documentation to the court and deliberately causing damage to the vehicle.

The operating lease for a Suzuki Grand Vitara jeep was signed back in 2007, but when the customer defaulted on the lease payments, the leasing company terminated the contract and hired a debt collection agency Reeborn to reclaim the vehicle. The customer met with a representative of Reeborn and turned over the vehicle, after signing a delivery and acceptance report.

For some reason, Reeborn handed the vehicle over to Swedbank Leasing not on the same day as customary, but only two weeks later.

The customer also claims that its copy of the delivery and acceptance report differs from the copy submitted to the court by Reeborn. Among others, the copy of the collection agency includes a signature of a representative of car dealer Saksa Auto that was to sell the car and photos of the vehicle.

Swedbank did not comment the claim to Äripäev, saying that it's practice is not to comment ongoing court proceedings.

As reported, profit of Estonian unit of Swedbank was 190.1 million euros last year versus 78 million euros in 2010.

The bank also managed to increase the fourth quarter profit to 50.2 million euros from 46.2 million in 2010.