I’ve noticed more than a few posts here regarding this debt collecting company called Panthera Finance, a company which makes its living preying on vulnerable people who have fallen into hard times. I was unlucky enough to have to deal with them recently and although the matter is now resolved I feel this information may help some of you guys who are unlucky enough to have to be in the same situation as me at some point in your lives.

From what i’ve been able to find out, Panthera Finance / State Merchantile are companies that operate from Brisbane and are owned by two holding corporations called HMB INVESTMENTS PTY LTD and HJK INVESTMENTS PTY LTD. State Merchantile are the acquisition branch which buys the debts and Panthera Finance run the call centre which harasses you.

The company has taken great pains to hide the following information from the public:

Registered place of business:
Level 4, 54 Jephson Street, Toowong, QLD, 4066
(This is a small office with a couple of staff used only for administrative purposes)

Call centre where the staff making the harassing phone calls work:
555 Coronation Drive, Toowong, QLD, 4066, bottom level of the building on the right directly as you walk in, “State Merchantile” on the sign.
(The head compliance officer and director of the company Mathew David Huges works here)

Another registered address of the company not used as the call center:
Merrotts Level 6, 241 Adelaide Street, Brisbane

Owners/Directors of Panthera Finance and State Merchantile are two twins from Wollongong who now live in Brisbane:

Mathew David Hough, 34 years old
Jamie Grant Hough, 34 years old

Mathews daughter who works in a management position for the company is named Bree or Corina (Not sure which) and Jamies wife is named Karen which I guess explains the choices of HMB and HJK for the holding companies.

The entire operation seems to be a family affair from the Hough clan who are making their money off the backs of those of us who fall into debt. Over the last 4-5 years they have managed to take millions of dollars from the less fortunate, often including the elderly and in some cases (looking through some posts on Whirlpool) even the family members of people who have died. Both Jamie and Mathew live in houses worth over $2mil and the company itself has an average of $1.86mil in Annual revenue.

If you are being harassed by them and live in Brisbane I suggest turning up to their office and dealing with the situation face-to-face. This a much more effective way to resolve your issues with them than through the telephone which is where they are in their element and most able to exert pressure on you.

I also have the home addresses of both Mathew and Jamie, their exact dates of births as well as the names and addresses of most of the people who currently work in their call centre. I haven’t posted this stuff because I don’t want to inadvertently break the law so if anyone can prove to me that I won’t be doing anything illegal by publishing it I will.

Don’t let these scumbags take advantage of you!

I have previously worked for state mercantile and resigned after being forced to debit details even after being informed by a debtor to cancel / postpone a payment. this is a family business and their business is money. it's easy enough to blame and abuse the collections officer on the other end of the phone but I can assure you 90% of the staff are forced to do and say everything and genuinely hate their job and the guilt that comes with it. in saying that unfortunately most of the staff much like myself needed the money and if we did not do as told we were let go. this is not a commission based company so there were no extra incentives for us to be so harsh. anyone that has an issue with them needs to ask for management and not settle till they have them on the phone. they will give every excuse under sun to avoid you but I assure you they are there listening to every word and coaxing a poor puppet to speak on their behalf. the creature of a puppet master you need to speak with is corina hough and an email to be reached on is manager @ statemercantile.com.au.

Scammers. When they ring, tell them to go and finger their cats arse hole.

guys just have fun with them , i prank all they call , pantera financial i hope you read this :

YOU NEVER WILL SEE MY MONEY
😂😂😂😂😂😂
LOOOOOOSER

Anon eat a bag of d*cks!

When calling a reference to locate a debtor, they aren't supposed to say where they are calling from unless you specifically ask. They do this to protect the debtors privacy because if you ask where they are calling from and you tell them, they can easily figure out that it's a collections agency. And why would a collections agency be calling someone? Because they owe money. The only reason why a collections agency will call a reference (such as a friend or family member) is because the debtor will not answer their phone, hangs up or doesn't return phone calls. If you don't want them calling you, ANSWER YOUR PHONE AND SORT OUT YOUR DEBT. 90% of reference contact details were either provided when a loan was taken out or services were applied for. Occasionally if a collections agency can't contact you, and you have not provided any references, they will try and locate friends or family members as a method of contacting you. They will only ask the reference to pass on a message, and will not disclose the details of the debt in order to protect the debtor's privacy. They confirm your contact details, not because they don't already have this information, but so they can cross check it with the information that they do have, and ensure that they haven't missed anything. They do this for the debtors benefit, to ensure that the receive letters etc. If the collector has the wrong person (i.e they are looking for Joe Bloggs but you are John Smith) go see a J.P and sign a statutory declaration stating that you are not the person the collections agency is looking for. Make sure you bring a copy of your drivers licence and other id when you go see the JP. Once you have a copy of the stat dec, scan a copy and email it to the collections agency. DO NOT POST THEM THE ORIGINAL, in case it gets lost in the post or they loose it. They will stop calling you if you provide this declaration. If you don't, they will think that you are just making it up that you aren't the debtor.

I have worked for this company known as panthera finance & state mercantile. They are a bunch of bullies who literally micro manage you and make sure you don't let any client off the phone without either paying on the spot or setting up a payement arrangement. They are mean, they don't care about peoples circumstances and are a bunch of a*sholes. Unfortunately, they are legit. However the managers just don't care, its all about money for them. They even treat their staff like sh*t, hence why I left.

I don't have an issue receiving calls if i have a debt to pay. If i have genuinely missed a payment on a 6 year old electricity account, no problem. Send me the absolute proof that this is owing, and i'll pay it.
Send me your garbage form letter with no proof other than your statement that you've purchased the debt, and your calls become harassment. Daily calls, despite being asked not to call unless you can provide evidence, amount to harassment. Refusing to accept that I'm not about to give my credit card number over the phone to someone i've never heard of is ridiculous. Behaving as though asking for proof is outrageous is just baffling.

Pick up your act. Stop tarring every "client" as a deadbeat clearout and you might get a better response.

This is Pantheas finance, it is chasing old, very old, written off Origin energy debts - I had a dispute with Origin back in 2012 and went to the ombudsman, the matter was dealt with Origin wrote off the debt, now 2015 they have sold that debt to Pantheas finance and the harassment has started all over again, after 3 years being dormant, no letters, no statements, nothing, finished.
Now they expect me to dig out archives 3 years back to prove to them it has been dealt with by the ombudsman. so, so, so over it.

People don't forget an old debt becomes statute barred from debt collection after 6 years of default date so check to see how old the debt really is. If you make a payment or acknowledge the debt the 6 year period can start again!

We are happy to speak with you and address any of your concerns you may have about our service. If you would like to contact us or lodge a complaint please contact us through our website at https://www.pantherafinance.com.au/contact_us or call us on 1300 722 974 and ask to speak with our complaints department. If you are a customer you can log in with your account details at https://www.pantherafinance.com.au/customers.

Going to kill alll Panthera staff for ringing my mothers phones. Kunts are f*cked.If antone wants details of tgheir employess I have photos and addresses so you can personally show them what you think of them..ask and u shall receive

They call people and ask to provide personal information. It really seems dodgy as they do not tell you why they are calling.
Never provide any personal information to these scammers.

Does anyone know the name of the principle / owners or there addresses. Please make it publicly available. someone needs to show them that they are not a law to their own

This company is a debt recovery service.

I have no bad debts. I have no indebted creditors. I have an exceptional Credit Rating. I've no idea why these scumbags would be calling me.

I missed a call from 0478 435 745. They left a voicemail saying to call 1300 722 974 and quote reference # blah blah blah.

There is no way I am calling them back and wasting MY time and MY money for scumbag debt collectors, when I have no debts, outstanding or otherwise.

Simple. Pay your bills! You agreed to this when taking the service or loan.

We have been living in our house with this phone number for 5 years and even today I am receiving calls from this company about some woman with Islander sounding name that I have net heard of. Several times they have been very insistent wanting to know who I am. Had a big yelling match once when they insisted that I give my name and dob. Why should I ? I have done nothing wrong and how do I know who they are and what they are going to do with my details? In the end I think I did in order that I would receive no more of these calls. I did not get so many for a while but it has now started up again...how can I stop this harassment?
Is there some agency I should speak to.? It really is giving me the sh*ts!!

Here are their other 'ghost' phone numbers. Add them to your block list.

0466 710 697
0431 167 821
0435 695 387
0490 071 514
0432 268 463
0411 215 934
0435 928 764
0478 134 857
0431 262 569
0412 572 031
0422 206 541

Dont ever answer the phone with your name when an unknown number calls. Always ask who is calling and who they represent. If they give you the 'under australian law...' blah blah then hang up immediately. A time will come when Panthera no longer has any right to the debts they paid pennies on the dollar to obtain.

I don't work for State Mercantile, but I do work for another collection agency, what people don't understand is that while there may be the occasional misunderstanding when it comes to recycled phone numbers, quite often the numbers we call DO belong to the people who owe money. PAY YOUR DEBTS, keep up with your arrangements, and they WILL NOT call you. If you agree to pay it off via arrangement and then you constantly miss payments, OF COURSE you will receive phone calls either requesting you pay your arrears or requesting payment in full. Get on top of your finances, and they will help you. If you abuse them and tell them to shove it, then of course they aren't going to be helpful.

Also, they request to confirm your full name and date of birth because the information they're calling to speak to you about is private - if your father has the same name as you and all they confirm is your first and last name, they could end up disclosing information that is sensitive and private, and quite often not something you want disclosed to other people. The same with not confirming the company name to anyone but yourself. If your housemate or boss answers the phone asking for you, and then advises they're calling from State Mercantile, a quick Google search will tell them they're calling you because you're in debt. It's also against the Law (Australian Privacy Policy) for them to do any of the above, including disclosing company name to anyone but the account holder or authorised party.

Do your research before you start complaining about the way they work. Most of it is the law.