1. Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit
John Pollock
Partnership & Support Officer
Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit
Talk Money Scotland,
Aberdeen, 16th November 2018

2. A Brief History Pilot projects established in 2004
Rolled regionally out nationally 2007
National teams established 2010
TSS established as part of COSLA 2014
SIMLU funding moved to Treasury 2017
Dedicated staffing resource

3. What is an illegal money lender?
A ‘loan shark’ is anyone who is lending money without having an authorisation from the Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) These unauthorised money-lenders are working illegally – they are ‘loan sharks’.

4. How they work They rarely give any paperwork
If payments are missed, they often use threats and violence to get more money
They charge extremely high rates of interest and also add other 'charges' to loans whenever they want
They take away borrowers property as 'security'

5. Where do Loan Sharks Work
Their homes
Outside Post Offices
Pubs
Bookmakers
Casinos
Bingo Halls
Anywhere where people gather

6. Are there loan sharks near me?
Quite Possibly – The SIMLU have investigated possible Illegal Money Lending Cases in many of the 32 Local Authority areas across Scotland including most of the major towns and cities.

7. Why Prevention is key Witnesses are scared to come forward
Going to court is a big concern
Borrowing/lending habits have changed
Goes hand in hand with investigating

8. How the change came about
Reestablishment of SIMLU
Changes in reporting patterns
Revaluation of SIMLU priorities

9. How are we focusing on prevention
Illegal Lending Prevention Projects
Scottish specific research into illegal lending
Prevention video

10. Illegal Lending Prevention projects
Pot(s) of funding made available
Any organisation can bid
Work closely to support work of projects
2nd year of funding
3rd year of bids has just closed
Projects are evaluated independently
Good practiced shared

11. CHAI Project
Working with individuals who are in drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres in Edinburgh. Also piloted some work within a primary school within one of Edinburgh’s deprived areas.

12. Money MOT
Scotcash were awarded the funding in 2018 to operate the Money MOT project which looked to develop technology to reach the most financially vulnerable people within society.

13. Future Projects
Funding applications open from August until end of October. Applications are short listed and then considered by TSS Governance board with an announcement being made in January.
Funding is on a 1 year basis and runs through the financial year (1st April – 31st March)

14. Illegal Money Lending Research
1st Scottish specific research
Looks at several issues from a users perspective
Looks at organisations views of illegal lending
Several recommendation for future direction of SIMLU
Launch event 22/11/2018

15. Discussion
For the next 20 minutes, consider the following and report back at the end;
What groups are most vulnerable to falling pray to illegal lending
How can we reach those most likely to fall victim to illegal lending
What would be your ‘silver bullet’ be

16. Illegal Money Lending Prevention Video

17. What to do if you think you have borrowed from a Loan Shark
You can talk to us in confidence, by:
Calling
Report via the website