The six Punjabi businessmen, referred to as 'Borrowers' in the court judgement, are Harjit Singh, Moninderjit Singh, Mandhir Singh Sandha, Sukhdev Singh Dhaliwal, Gurmeet Singh Brar and Kulwant Singh.
They were collectively sued by Sydney couple Ignacio and Leticia De Castro, who are referred to as the 'Lenders' in the case.
This relates to a commercial transaction formally signed between the borrowers and lenders on 11 September, 2006. The court document states "Under the Loan Agreement, the Lenders advanced $300,000 to the Borrower and the Borrower agreed to pay interest on the loan at a rate of 12 per cent per annum."
After repaying around $70,000, "The Borrower defaulted in its repayments and the Lenders commenced District Court proceedings against the Borrower and its six directors, claiming monies due and payable under the Loan Agreement". The court document adds that no monies were repaid by the borrowers after August 2011, and court proceedings were commenced in September 2014.
On September 1, 2016 the District Court found that the borrowers had defaulted. "The default judgement was entered against the borrowing business (which had been deregistered) and one of the directors (who was an undischarged bankrupt).
The remaining five directors, including Dr Moninder Singh appealed against the District Court judgement, and on 22 September 2017, the "Appeal was dismissed with costs."
The Supreme Court of NSW upheld the previous decision handed down by the District court that the borrowers return "the sum of $230,000.00 plus interest of $128,330.68 calculated up to 21 June 2016 (the first day of the hearing) and thereafter at the rate of $75.62 per day."
Speaking to SBS Punjabi program, Dr Moninder Singh said, "This is just a commercial dispute between two parties and we respect the decision made by the honourable court."
He added," The court ruling is very clear - there was no mention of any embezzlement or wrong-doing on our part."
"There was debate in the court for 10 days, and we also gave evidence."
"We weren't satisfied with the initial decision from the District Court, that's why we appealed it. Now that the judgement has been handed down, we have to honour it - no one is above the law." But he declined to state what arrangements, if any, are being made to return the money to the De Castros.
The court ruling specifically states that the evidence provided by Moninder Singh and his co-appellants Harjit Singh and Mandhir Singh "was unreliable", which is why their appeal was dismissed.
SBS Punjabi asked Dr Moninder Singh about this and he put it down to the "terminology used by the courts".
Since the initial court ruling in September 2016, Dr Moninder Singh has gone on to be elected a Councillor at Blacktown City Council. On the question of disclosure about this court finding, he told SBS Punjabi, " Any time I have filed my nomination papers for elections, whether it is for Council elections or state elections, I have always stated the facts, because the form clearly asks you to mention court rulings."
"There is a great deal of scrutiny that we have to comply with, so I have certainly mentioned this case while filing my nomination. In fact, there was another matter I had mentioned, which the court has now decided in our favour, but in this particular case, the judgement has gone the other way and we'll honour it."
To hear the full interview with Dr Moninder Singh, please click on the audio link above.
To read the court judgement in this matter, click
