Klao Bell, Staff Reporter
JAMAICANS have become more aggressive in collecting money owed to them, with some choosing to pursue the matter in court.
As a result, the courts last year declared bankrupt five persons and one company that could not pay back money they had borrowed.
Trustee in Bankruptcy Hartley Cooper noted in a faxed response to Sunday Gleaner questions that there is "...a more determined effort by creditors to take action including bankruptcy proceeds to recover debts."
In May of last year, persons who were declared bankrupt surrendered more than $30 million in assets to the Office of the Trustee in Bankruptcy. But by November, the value of assets held increased to $47 million.
The trustee has the responsibility of selling off the assets so that people or businesses to whom money is owed can be compensated.
The $17 million increase represents the assets of five persons and one business, for which bankruptcy, and orders to wind up operations, were made in 2000.
The five persons were forced into court for owing money to companies, while one bankrupt business was hauled there by an individual.
Meanwhile, the cases ended up before the trustee for various reasons including business failure. Mr. Cooper commented that common problems of the five cases were lack of experience and insufficient capital to successfully run the businesses.
"...In some cases the businesses failed because of the inexperience of the operators and in others because of under capitalisation," he said.
The names of the five persons and the lone company were not given by the trustee.
Persons become bankrupt when they unable to pay their debts and the court gets involved at the request of either the debtor or creditor. The five new bankruptcy cases last year were brought to court by creditors.
But while the trustee is trying to clear these cases, bankrupts have at times frustrated their efforts by concealing some of their assets. This is commonly done by transferring the titles to someone else's name, starting another company with a different name, or by not declaring offshore bank accounts.
"Debtors from time to time take steps to conceal their assets and, I believe sometimes succeed, (but) the department is, to a large extent successful in its effort to trace and recover debtor's assets for the benefit of their creditors," Mr. Cooper said.
However, Mr. Cooper added that "the department is constrained in pursuing cases of suspected concealment of assets because of limited human resources."
