Illegal Money Lending Team - Loan sharks
Anthony’s story
Anthony and his family enjoy Christmas these days, but for many years the festive season was overshadowed by the threat of a loan shark.
Anthony, 39, borrowed over £10,000 in small loans from someone he thought was a family friend over the years to help him through difficult times, like Christmas.
“We had two or three loans, even more over the Christmas period,” he said. “You want your kids to have a good life and you want to be able to have a decent Christmas and make memories with them. If someone is there saying here is some money you can pay back a bit a month, it’s too easy not to do it.”
Anthony believed the lender was legitimate, but he realised something was amiss when he struggled to repay and was suddenly faced with threats and intimidation.
Thankfully another lender had reported the lender to the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) – known as Stop Loan Sharks and an investigation had begun.
Anthony found out when an IMLT officer knocked on his door and told him he was one of a large number of borrowers who had been targeted.
Anthony was horrified to discover the ‘family friend’ he had borrowed from was actually a loan shark.
He said: “I was absolutely fuming. I am so angry that he was effectively profiting from our misfortune. He had taken money off my kids to fund his own life. The interest was just horrific. I had to pay back £60 or £70 on top of every £100 I borrowed. Over the years I have borrowed over £10,000, so that’s a lot of profit he has made from me - thousands and thousands of pounds.”
The illegal lender was prosecuted and jailed following the IMLT intervention and Anthony got his finances back on track.
“If anyone is thinking about borrowing from a lender like this I would say just don’t do it,” he said. “Speak to your family, find a legitimate source to borrow from and start saving for next year. If someone turns up on your doorstep offering you money and it seems too good to be true it will be – it will come back to haunt you.”
Sarah’s story
Sarah, a mum-of-two, said she felt violated after finding out a man she thought was a longstanding family friend was actually a loan shark.
Sarah, 37, said: “At the time I thought he was a friend doing me a favour. He had known me all my life and knew my parents - I trusted him completely. To see how much he actually made from me over the years was a real kick in the teeth. I feel violated and I’m sickened to think of how much he made from so many people. He was robbing us blind.”
Sarah said: “We had a whirlwind few years and I needed money. He was there, offering a loan and of course I took it. I considered him a family friend and I trusted him. He had known the family for years. He knew we never had anything and used that to his advantage.
“Christmas was the worst time – I just wanted to give my kids what I never had and so I had to borrow money at that time.
“I saw him as a way out. But it just kept rolling on year after year and it was never paid off. If I borrowed £300, I knew I was paying back about £500, but I didn’t realise how much it was mounting up.”
Sarah never questioned the lender, but when investigators from the England Illegal Money Lending Team contacted her, she was horrified to discover the amount of profit he had been making from her and other borrowers.
Figures showed that Sarah had borrowed in the region of £3,000 and paid back around £5,000 over a period of 10 years. She was one of more than 100 borrowers.
“I was horrified to see how much I had paid and to think how many other people he was lending to. How much money he was making out of us all. He was living a good life, while we were struggling,” she said.
Sarah’s message to other borrowers is: “Always do your homework. If they are legitimately lending, they will be registered. But these loan sharks aren’t. They can just make up their own rules. I am so glad to be free of him now.”
This lender was prosecuted following the IMLT investigation.
How to get help
The Centre for Social Justice estimates that around 1.08 million people are borrowing from loan sharks in the UK.
Signs to look out for include being offered no paperwork, being asked to hand over bank cards or a passport until the debt is repaid, being charged huge amounts of interest and facing threats or intimidation when you can’t pay.
The IMLT is a specialist national team which investigates and prosecutes loan sharks and supports victims.
Since its launch in 2004, the IMLT has supported over 32,000 people and written off over £91.3 million worth of illegal debt, securing over 427 prosecutions for illegal money lending leading to jail terms of more than 609 years.
Anyone who has been affected by illegal money lending should call the Stop Loan Sharks 24/7 confidential helpline on 0300 555 2222 or access support online at www.stoploansharks.co.uk. Live Chat is available on the website from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.