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A luxury car upholsterer has been ordered to pay $90,000 plus costs after he didn’t show up to defend himself for defaming a former staffer turned competitor.
A County Court awarded the $90,000 in damages to Michael Iskander after he sued the owner of Melbourne-based automotive upholstering business BNB Products, David Barcos, for defaming him in a Facebook post.
Barcos used his company’s 20,000 follower Facebook page to upload a post titled ‘This is an official Scam Alert From BNB Products PTY LTD’.
He went on to falsely claim that Iskander had scammed a customer out of their deposit and lied about previously having worked full-time at BNB Products.
Judge Julie Clayton ruled in favour of Mr Iskander’s evidence opposing the post after Barcos failed to show up to court or file a defence.
The owner of a luxury car upholstering business, David Barcos (pictured), has been ordered to pay $90,000 in damages after not showing up to court while being sued for defamation
Judge Clayton ruled that the post had to have been seen by ‘at least a few hundred people’ after it received 93 reactions, 53 comments and 64 shares in the days after ist was uploaded.
Mr Iskander claimed that a screenshot of a bank transfer attached to the post as ‘proof’ of him scamming Trev was fraudulent as the payee’s name was ‘M Isklander’ not ‘M Iskander’.
He told the court that the post had damaged his standing in the upholstery community as his business, Luxe Automotive Interiors, relies on internet marketing to advertise to customers.
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‘I accept that some people within the custom upholstery community likely believed the allegations made by Mr Barcos were true, and that this has likely had an impact on Mr Iskander’s personal and business reputation,’ Judge Clayton said, according to The Age.
Ms Clayton took into account the fraudulent and fabricated evidence into the $90,000 cost of damages with an extra $30,000 in legal costs for Mr Iskander’s lawyer, Matt Awad.
‘If you tell lies about someone else, you may be liable for defamation,’ Mr Awad said.
‘In this case, the financial consequences for the publisher are severe.’
Former employee of Barcos turned rival upholsterer, Michael Iskander (pictured), sued Barcos for a Facebook post that falsely claimed he had scammed a customer and was a liar
In a post to Facebook on Sunday, Mr Iskander updated his followers that he had won the defamation case and thanked those who ‘remained by my side… and didn’t believe the lies’.
‘So for anyone that saw BNB’s post last December, where David Barcos falsely claimed that I was scamming customers, stealing money and more. I just recently won the court case suing for defamation of character,’ Mr Iskander wrote.
‘In no way am I trying to have a go at David Barcos, but rather stating the facts to clear my name.
‘I truly believe that if you remain a good person at heart and do good to others, good things will happen to you.
‘But if you aren’t a good person and genuinely want to do harm to other people, these are the consequences.’
