What is a Loan Shark? A loan shark is someone who lends money without the correct permissions under Section 19 and 23 of the Financial Service and Markets Act These licences are issued by Financial Conduct Authority It is a criminal offence and carries a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

England Illegal Money Lending Team Hosted by Birmingham City Council Employs 70 members of staff Two distinct functions Investigators and LIAISE Officers Agile workers across England Trading Standards team with embedded Police

Addressing the issues Using the full weight of the legislation available: Financial Services Marketing Act Proceeds of Crime Act Theft Act 1968 –Demanding money with menaces / Blackmail. Injunctions and anti social behaviour Orders.

IMLT achievements to date Taken over 329 prosecutions Assisted over 25,000 victims Written off over £64 million of illegal debts (money victims would have paid back to illegal lenders if the Department had not acted) Trained over 24,000 front line staff to spot the signs of illegal lenders Secured prison sentencing totalling over 214 years for illegal money lending and associated crimes (plus Indeterminate Sentence for Public Protection )

PN & TR Found guilty of 20 offences including Blackmail & Rape Links to Prostitution, steroids & drugs Sexually assaulted his victims & one customer committed suicide Between June 2007 and March 2008 he collected over £648,000 On Police radar, difficult to prosecute 1 million POCA jointly with Cheshire Police Sentenced to IPP (will serve a min. 7 years) partner given 4 years

SDL Charged with 16 counts of IML Loaned money to fellow foster parents Operated from her home in Manchester for more than 7 years Over £300,000 in cash, cheques and bank transfers flooded into her account One victim ended up paying back around £125,000 over a period of seven years, after borrowing around £30,000. Given 3 years in prison Judge Rudland said “You advanced loans with no assessment as to whether people could pay. The victims had no idea of their indebtedness to you. They saw you as a life long friend but you were ready to exploit them while benefiting yourself

Who is affected?  Estimated 310,000 UK households using illegal money lending  This equates to 12% of households in the most deprived areas  Convert households to people and that is about 732,000 men, women and children living in the shadow of loan sharks  People repay £700 million per year to loan sharks

Typical characteristics No credit agreements given – “you owe me this much today” No receipts for payment or payment books Violence, intimidation or threats if repayments are missed Loans to young people (under 18’s) Can take illegal securities e.g. cash card Never advertise – find clients by word of mouth. Personality changes when victim can no longer meet payments Could implicate relatives if borrower disappears

How do they work? Operate in a community to a cohort of people Seem like a friend, helping out in a crisis Payments are mainly in cash, Loan Shark maintains own records Often work alone until business grows or need support with intimidation They might take securities, belongings May suggest crime, prostitution or ‘tasking’

July 2014 National Campaign Shelter Crisis Financial Inclusion and PRS – Claire Whyley Foyer Federation Locally, good success with YMCA and Hostels

July 2014 Darlington National Awareness Campaign across the Private Rented Sector. Training delivered to multi-agencies. Leaflet drop 1200 properties - Northgate Article in Darlington Echo Radio Star interview

What we know 3.6 million households living in private rented sector People seeking help from the local authority as homeless were due to PRS tenancies ending Single people find it more difficult to get help in social housing as they are low-priority Most move into PRS as the local authority unable to help or they felt they had no other choice Those unable to afford home ownership & unable to access social housing

Why people move into PRS Housing related crisis event – loss of accommodation due to overcrowding, condition being unfit for human habitation. Personal traumatic event or critical incident – a one-off event, job loss, debt, mental health problems. Ongoing need – something personal, relationship breakdown, continued substance mis-use, prison, domestic violence

What do they need? Barriers for PRS – not having a rent deposit or landlords not accepting benefits or bond schemes Lack of furnished homes or white goods – people can not budget on food, difficulty managing finances going without basics such as heating People found it hard to say PRS property was their home due to fear of landlords raising the rent or evicting them

The relevance to the IMLT? Untapped – we have fantastic relationships with RSLs and Council teams We don’t know what we don’t know We have victims who used a Loan Shark for the deposit for PRS Our victims are hidden enough, but in PRS are possibly unaware of the help and support available to them from local agencies (and us)

Ask …. Who’s the friend? Victims don’t call the illegal lender a Loan Shark, they call them ‘mate, pal, friend, guy down the pub, lady at school gates……’

Witness Support… Loan sharks sometimes over-estimate their own importance… 1.Threats “If you grass me up, I’ll kill you” NOT TRUE – out of all the witnesses we’ve supported – ZERO% have had any physical harm after we’ve got involved 2. Retribution “If I’m in prison my mates can still get to you” DOESN’T HAPPEN - The IMLT stay in contact with all our witnesses, risk assess any new situations and react quickly 3. Promises “If you report me, nothing will be done” WRONG - The IMLT have a 100% prosecution success rate!

Any questions?

Contact details Denise Meek LIAISE Officer in the North East is the Stop Loan Sharks hotline, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.