Complaint Review: Worldwide Migration Services Mohamad John Maarbani - Sydney Other

Mr Mohamad John Maarbani from Worldwide Migration Services was employed on 9th June 2006 to aid the client Mr Enrico Adriaan with representations, assistance and legal submissions with case at the Migration Review Tribunal.

Mr Maarbani under contract and under registered migration regulations stated that his services would include representation in all matters concerning Mr Adriaan's dealings with the Department of Immigration and Migration Affairs (DIMA) as well as all matters regarding the Migration Review Tribunal(MRT).

Mr Adriaan initially paid a total of AU$ 2900 which included a $1400 MRT application fee and Mr Maarbani's $1500 professional fee.

Mr Maarbani was supposed to immediately lodge an application for MRT review and pay the $1400 application fee which would enable Mr Adriaan to receive an unlimted bridging visa and progress in the next steps of his applications process. This was an extremely simple task which according to all known sources would only take a few hours.

Mr Maarbani did not pay the application for close to two months and Mr Adriaan was forced to return to DIMA every 2 weeks to renew his temporary visa causing great distress.

Mr Maarbani advised his client that he did pay the MRT fee but the MRT stated that the fee was never paid. Mr Adriaan was forced to accept the agent's explanation and waited for another 2 weeks. Eventually after over a month of non payment, Mr Adriaan received a letter from the MRT stating that the agent had applied for a fee waiver for his application. Under further questioning, Mr Maarbani then informed Mr Driaan that he had decided to withdraw the first application and switch applications from an appeal for ??reverting a visa cancellation?? to an appeal for ??refusal of a new visa?? and that he applied for a fee waiver because he was afraid that he may be billed twice. The application for a fee waiver was never ever communicated to Mr Adriaan till the MRT informed him about it.

The agent would always inform Mr Adriaan when called that he would get back to him on a particular day which would never happen forcing Mr Adriaan to call Mr Maarbani whenever he needed an explanation.

After 2 months of long distress, Mr Adriaan decided to go over to the MRT and pay the application fee himself after informing the Agent and Mr Maarbani promised to refund him the original $1400 fee since he had never used it. Mr Adriaan's own efforts in the MRT went smoothly as planned and he received his unlimited bridging visa in one day relieving his months of distress.

Mr Maarbani issued a cheque for $1400 which Mr Adriaan only deposited almost 2 weeks later which bounced. Mr Maarbani stated that Mr Adriaan was only supposed to deposit the cheque when he ??felt like it?? and informed Mr Adriaan he could do so despite there being no question that this money did not belong to the agent and was not to be used for any of his personal dealings.

Mr Adriaan was also contacted by the MRT telling him that the decision for his first application for ??reverting a visa cancellation?? has been made and that it had been refused due to there being no funds in the account given by the agent Mr Maarbani.They also stated that they never received the application for withdrawal so the application went forward but was rejected due to no fund's being received. Mr Maarbani seemed clueless when told of this matter.

Mr Adriaan also soon found out that Mr Maarbani was an agent under caution by the Migration Agents Registration Authority (MARA) and that he had a long record of misconduct with over 9 cases against him that he was eventually found guilty of.

Decision Date : 01 Jun 2006

Agent Name : Maarbani, Mohamad

Agent Number : 9793353

Decision : Cautioned

Decision Summary : The Agent was cautioned for twelve months and until he completes private tuition on Ethics and Professional Practice, and Record Keeping and File Management. The Authority found that the Agent:

?failed to properly supervise staff

?failed to return files and documents when requested by clients

?failed to provide client files to the Authority when requested

?failed to keep clients informed in writing

?failed to maintain proper files.

After such a long tormented ordeal where the agent did not even do one thing right for Mr Adriaan and caused so much trouble, Mr Maarbani was informed on 29th Sep 2006 that his services would be terminated and that Mr Adriaan requested to be refunded both the application fee of $1400 and the $1500 professional fee. Mr Maarbani said he would ??think about it?? and get back to Mr Adriaan. After a week of difficulty contacting Mr Maarbani and the agent eventually saying he would have to ??look into the file??, the agent finally told Mr Adriaan that he was only willing to refund $750 of his professional fee despite doing absolutely nothing for him. Mr Adriaan knowing the character of the Agent asked to be returned the $1400 application fee and the $750 refund as soon as possible only to be told that this money would be refunded at ??the appropriate time??.

Mr Adriaan eventually had to contract a new migration lawyer after his bad experience despite his being low on funds and till this very day after being contacted repeatedly by Mr Adriaan's new lawyer and repeated promises by Mr Maarbani of paying in the next ??7 days??, Mr Maarbani has not returned a single cent of the client's own money citing ??financial problems??. Why Mr Maarbani even dares to use Mr Adriaan's $1400 application fee for any other purposes is unknown.

Due to Mr Maarbani's misconduct and repeated failures, Mr Adriaan believes that he should be entitled to a full refund of Mr Maarbani's $1500 professional fee as well as the immediate repayment of the client's own money of $1400 which Mr Maarbani has supposedly used for his own personal purposes. The case is still going on.

Enrico

Sydney
Australia

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