Bank's error a costly business

By NAOMI LARKIN

Glenys Dreyer is still fighting for compensation nearly six years after her bank began sending private account statements to her former partner.

The 41-year-old West Auckland solo mother wants the ASB Bank to pay $35,000 compensation for breaching her privacy after copies of statements from her personal account were sent to her ex-partner's address for two years.

Despite Ms Dreyer asking staff at the bank's Waiuku branch to stop posting the copies to his home, 15 were sent there between 1995 and 1997.

The Privacy Commissioner Bruce Slane last year ruled that the bank had breached her privacy, causing her harm.

The bank has offered to pay Ms Dreyer $5000 compensation, but she claims this does not cover the loss of privacy, costs arising from a legal battle with her ex-partner, and the physical and emotional stress caused by the breach. She has suffered hair loss, rashes, an inability to sleep and has had to undergo counselling.

"I've been trying to get a settlement out of them to cover some of the losses. I've been all the way to the High Court and back and through the Privacy Commission to get my ruling and I'm still battling for a little bit of justice.

"It's such a long battle and I'm just a little person and I'm not getting anywhere. I think if I was a big company it would have been settled."

As well as detailed information about her financial position, the statements contained private information about redundancy and superannuation payouts made to Ms Dreyer - a year after she separated from her partner.

In 1999 she had to fight a legal battle against her ex-partner, to retain the money from the payouts, after he claimed he was entitled to a share.

The saga began in 1995 when she moved out of the Norfolk Rise house in Waiuku that she shared with her partner and told the bank of her change of address after earlier requesting that the computer loading, which duplicated her statements, be removed.

But statements continued to be sent to her own address and the Norfolk Rise house even after she went into the bank three times and asked that the address be removed.

Ms Dreyer said she did not discover her former partner had so many copies of the statements until the High Court hearing.

A letter dated April 17 of this year from the bank said the "error has never been disputed," that it had always been open to "fair and reasonable compensation" and that it considered $5000 was appropriate.

Yesterday, Barbara Chapman, the bank's general manager marketing and human resources in Auckland, said privacy laws meant the bank could not comment about a customer - even confirm that they were a customer - without that person's authorisation.