A Pickering man learned the importance of checking bank statements carefully when he realized he'd been paying insurance on a car he hadn’t owned for nine years.
Stanley Brown ignored several notices sent to his home by his insurance company, thinking the envelopes were just full of junk mail.
He told CTV Toronto that he doesn't keep a close eye on his bank account, and didn't notice that the company had been extracting hundreds of dollars each year toward an insurance policy he thought he'd cancelled.
Brown said the engine died in his 1994 Plymouth Acclaim in 2007. He decided it wasn't worth fixing, so he had the vehicle hauled to a scrap yard.
He said he then called his insurance company and told them to remove the vehicle from his account, since it was no longer in use.
Brown got a new car, and took out a policy with a different insurance company.
He said he got a letter from the first company, but he thought it was just a ploy to win back his business. For the next nine years, he just threw any letters from the company in the trash.
Recently, his wife decided to open a letter, and noticed they'd never stopped taking payments for the vehicle.
He went to his bank, and found that he'd been paying premiums every month, for a car that is no longer on the road.
Brown said he contacted the insurance company, and representatives offered to reimburse him for two years of payments. When he declined, they offered four years, he said.
"I think it's fair to give it all back, nine years of payments," his daughter Rochelle Brown told CTV's Pat Foran.
CTV contacted the insurance provider, and a representative said that the case was unusual. The company said it's the customer's responsibility to ensure a policy has ended.
However, a spokesperson said the case would be reviewed, then told CTV that senior management decided Brown would be reimbursed for the full nine years.
He will be getting a cheque for more than $11,000.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Pat Foran
