Australian Debt Collectors to Face Increased Scrutiny

New South Wales Police will regulate the state’s 3000 private investigators, debt collectors and repossession officers under new state legislation, the Police Minister, John Watkins, said yesterday.

The Commercial Agents and Private Inquiry Agents Bill 2004 also introduced tough new penalties, including jail terms, for harassment, overcharging, deceptive conduct or other rogue activity, he said.

“Deceptive or illegal conduct, heavy-handedness and other shoddy behaviour – which has been the subject of numerous complaints – will be stamped out,” Mr Watkins said in a statement. “And people convicted of certain offences, non-citizens and those without experience or training will be banned from doing this work.”

Mr Watkins said the new laws applied to agents working in areas including debt collection, process serving, debugging and repossession, dispute resolution and debt restructuring.

Those who located missing persons, witnesses or debtors, or carried out specialised commercial inquiries like pre-employment checks and private inquiries, would also be subject to the new laws, he said.

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