SEVERAL motorists have been caught in a bind: They have bought new cars through a parallel importer now being hounded by its creditors, and have been told by another company to pay more money in order to have their cars registered and delivered.

These car buyers have made police reports against Frankel Motor and Frankel Leasing, but have been told that this is a civil case.

Police have declined to say how many people are in such a fix.

Meanwhile, Frankel Group, an outfit which operates out of the same premises and has the same sales staff as its two predecessors, is asking customers who ordered their cars from Frankel Motor or Frankel Leasing to pay more money - $5,000 in one case - if they still want their vehicles.

Both Frankel outfits have stopped selling cars, and are at least $7 million in debt.

A search with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority showed Frankel Group to have been registered on Nov 20 last year. It has as a director Mr Kelvin Yap Swee Heng, who was a director at Frankel Leasing.

The Straits Times understands that the name change on the showroom shopfronts in Frankel Avenue and MacPherson Road was made only three weeks ago.

One customer caught up in the company's financial troubles is businessman Benjamin Seow, 26, who booked a $68,888 Honda Airwave through Frankel Leasing on Sept 4.

He said: 'The loan has been processed, the COE was secured, but we never got the car. When I decided to confront the company on MacPherson Road, I was shocked as the name on the shopfront had been changed to Frankel Group.'

The sales staff, he said, claimed his deposit of around $18,000 had been 'embezzled' and that Frankel Group would help deliver the car, provided another $5,000 was paid.

Mr Seow said: 'I'm at a loss now. What if they don't give me the car even after I pay them the $5,000?'

He said that, ideally, he would want another company to register the car. He had decided to patronise Frankel, he said, because the Honda agent here did not import the Airwave.

Like many other customers in a similar bind, he has made a police report.

At least four banks and financial institutions have filed lawsuits to recover between $82,000 and $4.4 million from Frankel Motor.

Similar writs have been filed against its associate Frankel Leasing and its director Ho Yik Fuh. Neither he nor Frankel Group's Mr Yap have been contactable.

Creditors have had varying success in seizing Frankel's assets to recover what is owed them. GE Money, for example, is still trying to recover the cars it had financed, said its legal counsel Michael Puhaindran.

The biggest creditor might be OCBC Bank, which is trying to recover $4.4 million.

Credit company Kenso Leasing, which is owed about $100,000, has taken steps to cut losses by repossessing two cars used by Mr Ho, said its general manager Anthony Lim.

The Straits Times understands that customers who have bought cars from Frankel recently may face the risk of having their cars repossessed by the company's creditors, but one finance company said it was unlikely to resort to this unless it had proof that the buyer knew at the start that his purchase was not 'entirely clean'.