By Arul John

THIS man was a country club member for a day. And he says it cost him about $31,000.

Retired police officer Chua Chee Choon, 56, was also made a bankrupt for seven years.

The 10-year saga finally came to an end recently when he settled with various creditors.

In November 1997, he accepted an offer to join the Admiralty Resort and Country Club during a club membership drive at Capitol Cinema.

The club is no longer in existence.

Mr Chua was told he needed to put down a $2,000 deposit and pay the balance of a promotional membership fee of $24,000 in instalments.

The deal came with an overdraft facility provided by the Bank of Singapore, a subsidiary of the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC). And he was supposed to pay the bank $300 a month for seven years.

He said he was told he could cancel his membership within two weeks, but would have to forfeit the deposit.

'I told the promoter I needed to visit the club before confirming my purchase, but after she assured me of the window period, I decided to sign up and pay the deposit,' said Mr Chua.

After checking out the club a day later, he decided against joining. He claimed he told the club he wanted to cancel his membership and forgo the deposit as agreed.

INFORMED BANK

According to him, he also informed the bank the same day that he was pulling out. He could not show us any documents to verify this.

Mr Chua said he thought that was the end of the matter, but he later got letters from the bank asking him to pay the balance of the membership fee.

On 19 Jan 1998, Mr Chua paid the bank $1,000 as 'goodwill' money as it said he was still liable for the contract and had signed the letter of offer.

He later paid another $500 as 'goodwill' to the bank, on 5 Aug 1998, but did not get any documentary proof that the issue had been settled.

The bank said it never told Mr Chua it would waive the balance after he paid the 'goodwill money'.

The bank later filed a writ of summons against him for $28,100.

Mr Chua claimed that the bank's law firm got a judgment against him and proceeded with a bankruptcy order without his knowledge.

In an affidavit filed later to get the bankruptcy annulled, he said: 'I only knew I had been made a bankrupt in 2001, when SingTel and the Public Utilities Board wrote to me to tell me they were closing their accounts with me as I had been declared a bankrupt. I was told to transfer my accounts to my wife's name, which I did.'

Mr Chua was declared a bankrupt on 23 Mar 2001.

He said he used to earn about $7,000 a month, including bonuses, as a police inspector, till he took early retirement in 2000. His 47-year-old wife earns about $3,000 monthly, working for a statutory board.

TWO DISABLED CHILDREN

They have four children aged 15 to 25. The younger two are disabled and study in special schools.

After retiring, Mr Chua said he planned to start a security firm but his bankruptcy prevented him from starting a company under his name.

In May 2002, Mr Chua started work as a service technician but he was retrenched about 16 months later.

He said: 'After I was retrenched, I was unable to find a job. I had to rely on part-time jobs and my savings and retirement gratuity, which was between $300,000 and $400,000. We had to re-budget our living expenses, let our maid go and sell our car.'

Mr Chua was even prepared to sell his Jurong West executive maisonette and downgrade to a smaller home.

However, he added: 'I had no problems paying my bills, just that they were done in my wife's name. But I felt bad at not being able to provide things for my children, and being unable to go on holidays every year like we used to.'

In 2001, Mr Chua had complained to the Insolvency and Public Trustee's Office (IPTO) that he was wrongly adjudged a bankrupt.

IGNORED ADVICE

A spokesman for the Official Assignee (OA) said the IPTO advised Mr Chua to hire a lawyer to set aside or annul the bankruptcy order as well as to approach his creditors to clarify the matter, but he ignored their advice until 2006.

On 22 Jun 2006, Mr Chua learned that the OA had summoned him to court on 6 Jan 2003 for not filing his statement of affairs - his financial details and history - on time.

He claimed he never received the summons. He handed in the statement on 17 Jul 2006.

On 26 Oct last year, Mr Chua's lawyer, Mr A P Thirumurthy, applied to High Court Assistant Registrar Jason Chan to set aside the bankruptcy order. The application was dismissed.

On 10 Jan this year, Mr Thirumurthy appealed against this decision to Justice Andrew Ang, who dismissed the appeal because of the 'inordinate delay' and advised Mr Chua to settle out of court with his creditors. He also advised the bank's lawyers to take a sympathetic view as Mr Chua had lost his rights for more than six years.

After negotiations, Mr Chua paid $10,000 to OCBC. He also settled unpaid credit card and utility bills totalling about $3,000 with Citibank, DBS and SP Services.

Along with the initial deposit, the 'goodwill' money and his legal fees, he paid about $31,000 in all.

The OA finally annulled his bankruptcy order on 18 Apr.

This article was first published in The New Paper on June 17, 2008.