The 'Stop Loan Sharks Project' was established in Summer 2004.
With an estimated 310,000* households nationally in debt to illegal lenders, the teams out in force investigating and prosecuting ‘loan sharks’, supporting victims and raising awareness to encourage more people to speak out against callous and greedy unlicensed lenders.
Our Key Messages include:
- Never turn to a loan shark.
- If you have, or if someone you know has turned to a loan shark, help is available.
How do loan sharks operate and what should people look out for?
- It is illegal to operate a money lending business without a licence from the Office of Fair Trading. As illegal money lenders are unlicensed they follow no regulations.
- To lend money without a license is a criminal offence. This is investigated and prosecuted by the team, utilising Trading Standards powers.
- Illegal money lenders generally start out being friendly, and are often heard of through a friend, but can change very quickly as soon as payment is missed.
- Often illegal money lenders offer little or no paperwork. Even if you do sign paperwork, they may not give you a copy.
- Often illegal money lenders do not tell the victims the interest rate, they can adds extra charges or increase the amount despite the victims making regular payments.
- Often illegal money lenders refuse to tell victims when they will finish paying or how much they still owe.
- Often illegal money lenders take passports, driving licences, benefits cards, bank cards or other items as security for the loan.
- Often illegal money lenders make their victims feel threatened and intimated or are violent towards them.
Removing illegal money lenders has been shown to have huge effects on communities. The team has undertaken research which shows that reduced levels of crime and anti-social behaviour, improved mental health, and reduced rent arrears and evictions, have all been the consequences of the arrest of an illegal money lender.