De*****ed by estranged wife, Liberty apparently completely innocent

In January after my estranged wife left, I had quite accidentally discovered that an advance of R92 000 had been taken on my Liberty Life insurance in October 2016. Please note that I had undergone back surgery on the 14 September 2016 & was on some pretty strong pain meds, morphine patches included, as I now have sciatica.

I began scratching around & sending emails to Liberty asking for all of the documents pertaining to the advance. I had pretty much no response from them, definitely no documents. Apparently a Mr Roche Clark was my broker, though I had never met the man. But Liberty insisted that they had a signed appointment letter from me, appointing him as my broker. That is the one document they did forward me. Prenesha from Liberty actually phoned & then forwarded it to me. I then rep**** to the email stating that the signature was a forgery. Obviously I got no response to that.

I then instructed Liberty to remove Mr Clark as my broker as I did not appoint him as such. Yvette Jeffries from Liberty then confirmed the removal as my broker via email, & once again attached the forged appointment letter stating that it was discussed on a recorded line with Prenesha & I must have a look & get back to them. I immediately responded by saying once again that it was a forgery. No response.

So I e-mailed Thiru Pillay (Executive: Compliance – Forensics & Legal). He placed the matter in the hands of Elna Lombard (Manager Customer Relations). They investigated in record time & rep**** that as the money was paid into my account, a payment that was processed by “my broker – Roche Clark”, & that I was free to refer the matter to the Ombudsman.

I posted my story on Hello Peter, Sizwe Ncipha came back apologising & referred the matter. A very nice lady by the name of Tshepang Khumalo let me know that she had referred the matter to the Forensics department for investigation. She was kind enough to keep me informed every few days on the progress.

She then came back & informed me that the advance request was processed correctly & in good faith as the full requirements were met. And as they had a signed appointment letter appointing Roche Clark as my broker, he was authorised to submit the application. She also advised me that Roche Clark was terminated by Liberty as a Financial Advisor due to irregularities. She then sent me all the paperwork pertaining to the advance. Previously Larato Tau from Liberty had told me that there were no papers to prove the funds were accessed as the payment was processed by the broker on the system. So miraculously they did exist.

Note that an entire Youtube video was made last year when Mr Clark left, Stanlib was letting clients know that he had left to pursue bigger & better opportunities. So what is the truth?

I happened to be having coffee at the Woolworths in Bedford Centre when my estranged wife brought a gentleman over to me & introduced me to Roche Clark, that was about a month ago. First time I had met him or spoken to him. I had asked him if he was my broker, he denied it & asked me if I had received my money. I got upset & was asked to calm down by the coffee shop staff.

I showed the “signed” application for the advance & the introduction letter to my estranged wife, because it is obvious that she withdrew the funds without my knowledge. She had easy access to my bank account as I had previously given her signing power, so its pretty easy for her to access my account. I was also still recovering from my back op, so not in a position to run around & spend money or check my account. After all, she was my wife of almost 50 years, I trusted her. Big mistake. Anyway, I showed her the forms which she had sent through to Roche for the advance & to appoint him as my broker. She admits it’s not my signature, but when I asked who forged my signature she shrugs her shoulders & keeps quiet. Keeps saying all she wanted was to know what a cession was & then Roche convinced her to take the advance. I know, a load of bull. He had nothing to gain in doing so.

I made an appointment to meet with Roche. Thought I would give him a fair chance to explain himself. Even took a witness with. We met & spoke. I showed him the email from Liberty saying he was let go because of irregularities. He said it was a blatant lie. He left to start his own Discovery franchise. He phoned Tshepang Khumalo. Told her it was a lie & that he was also not able to process the payment. Then Tshepang apparently told him that the payment was processed by a Joseph Chatandae at Disbursments. He then requested that they correct the apparent lie about his reasons for leaving by emailing us a retraction. So far we have received nothing. He further admitted that he never dealt with me at all, although I am the owner of the policy. He had dealt with my estranged wife, who at the time was the beneficiary. He had built a relationship with her over many years of dealing with her when she worked for my son & Roche was his broker. So he had trusted that she was applying for the advance on my instruction. Before leaving he gave us a business card & said we could contact him, should we need further info. So I sent him an email a week later asking for him to send me a written response to Liberty’s allegations, an account of the events pertaining to the advance (as best he can recall) & also to state in writing that at no time did he ever have any dealings with me until now, but had dealt only with my wife. Well, the only response I received was when he cc’d me into an email to Liberty saying he was still waiting for a retraction from them. So obviously doesn’t want to put anything in writing, even when he had said it all in person to me. Makes me wonder why.

I have given the advance request forms & appointment letter that were forged over to a forensic handwriting analyst, who without much effort realised something was amiss as soon as I gave him my sample signature. I am awaiting his full report. Although as an ex policeman, even I can see that it is likely a tracing, you can see all the pen lifts & double lines when a mistake was made.

I think I will be taking Tshepang Khumalo’s advice & be laying a charge with SAPS. The police can then decide who all gets charged. I can almost guarantee it won’t only be my soon to be ex wife.

So dear Liberty. I paid my policy since 1986, I have now surrendered it for a measly R25000. Because that was the shocking effect of allowing a ***** of a R92000 advance to slip through your fingers. I could not in good conscience continue paying a policy with your company. I would not refer anyone to your company, *************, *********** & quite honestly, most of your staff are condescending. You speak to your clients as if we are idiots who don’t know what the hell we are doing. When in fact, you are the idiots who are quite obviously incapable of even reading an email.

I quite honestly don’t know what has shocked me more, Liberty’s incompetence or my wife dishonesty.