Criminal charges against Australian debt collection company Panthera Finance dismissed

Criminal charges against one of Australia’s biggest debt collection firms have been dismissed after the company successfully argued it was not technically engaged in debt collection. In a committal hearing at the Melbourne magistrates court on Tuesday, magistrate Michelle Hodgson dismissed the charges against Panthera Finance and ordered that Consumer Affairs Victoria pay costs. Parramatta-based Francom Group bought Panthera Finance in December 2024 after it was placed in administration by its financial backers Brookfield. Francom was not accused of any wrongdoing. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Consumer Affairs Victoria had launched criminal proceedings against Panthera after a 2020 federal court ruling found that Panthera had unduly harassed three consumers for debts and was fined $500,000. The regulator argued that the court’s finding made Panthera Finance a “prohibited person” under the state’s debt collection laws. This followed a Guardian Australia investigation that revealed the company had sought to circumvent the blacklisting by using a related entity, claiming it was “business as usual” despite the federal court order. At the time, the regulator said the action was needed to ensure that debt collection activity in the state remained lawful, saying people facing financial challenges “can be very vulnerable to poor debt collection practices”. Related: Owner of scandal-plagued Panthera Finance tells court it was not technically operating illegally in Victoria In its defence, heard by the court last week, Panthera argued that the prosecution had not provided “one iota of evidence” that the debts it was collecting were debts owed to another person, and therefore it was not technically prohibited. Under section 3 of the Australian Consumer Law and Fair Trading Act, a debt collector is defined as someone who “for remuneration or reward” will “collect, attempt to collect, or request payment of, debts owed to another person”. Legal counsel for Panthera Finance argued that given it had “acquired” the debts, it was not technically engaged in collecting debt owed to a third party. Instead, he claimed that Panthera Finance was collecting debt that it now owned. Hodgson said that she could only consider the elements of the definition of debt collection that were outlined in the act, “and that act alone”. She said that in this definition, which could not be expanded upon, “parliament has used a definition based on who the debt is owed to”. As a result, she dismissed the charges and ordered that Consumer Affairs Victoria pay costs, the amount of which is yet to be determined. Georgina Antoun, the chief executive of Francom Group, welcomed the decision, saying the ruling that Panthera had not been prohibited provided certainty to “our customers, clients and employees”. “Francom is determined to see through its desire to transform the perceptions of the debt collection industry,” Antoun said. “We are passionate about supporting customers with vulnerabilities, educating our team about how to best inform customers about the long-term impacts of debt and helping unlock financial freedom for all.”