A former derivatives trader and self-described "enthusiastic amateur property developer and land banker", James Woodward Neale, has failed in the Supreme Court of New South Wales to show that the Bank of Western Australia embarked on a concerted effort to send him into default and then to sell his valuable property holdings at a discount.Justice David Hammerschlag found that, contrary to his lengthy arguments to the contrary, Neale, who represented himself for much of the 14 days of the final hearing, had been unable to prove that the terms of the loan from Bankwest were onerous or "that he was subject to, or the victim of, anything remotely approaching economic duress, with respect to his borrowing from Bankwest or its terms, including his agreement to hedge interest rates"."True it is that things did not go well [in his attempts to get a property development up and running], but Mr Neale has not established that anyone other than himself is to blame," Hammerschlag also noted in his summing up. Neale now faces a bill of about $32 million and the loss of his final piece of valuable real estate, one of several that were mortgaged to Bankwest in early 2008. The bank had initially agreed to provide loans and advances that eventually totalled $19.8 million to Neale and his company, JW Neale for a large property development at Avon Road Pymble, on Sydney's upper North Shore. The term was for 18 months, and was intended to re-finance an existing Macquarie Bank facility of $8.750 million, make a final payment to his ex-wife of almost $6.5 million and provide working capital to fund continued costs associated with development of his Pymble properties.The loan was initially at the bank bill rate plus an annual margin of 1.65 per cent, with principal to be repaid at the end of the term.     As security for the loan, Neale mortgaged the 10-acre Avon Rd property, along with a two-acre property at Fox Valley Road, in the nearby suburb of Wahroonga; and an industrial property at Yatala Road, Mt Ku-ring-gai.During 2009 and 2010, evidence presented to the court showed that Neale failed to obtain development approval in time, selected a joint venturer builder with limited experience, and argued constantly with the bank over timing of payments and interest charges, among other missteps. Nonetheless, the bank took no enforcement action between expiry of the facility in November 2009 and its new facility offer letter of 9 February 2010. "It was Mr Neale who did not comply with the conditions for the extension, notwithstanding his acceptance of the terms," Hammerschlag observed.Hammerschlag was particularly critical of Neale's central argument, that Commonwealth Bank, once it acquired Bankwest, had set out on a deliberate course of targeting Bankwest's customers with the intention of harming them by fraudulently forcing them into default of loan-to-ratio covenants and selling them up at an undervalue. Neale submitted that one of CBA's motives for contriving default was that the "penalty interest rate", which would in that