Scumbag should have been jailed

Aug 9 2009 Sunday Sun

ROBERT REYNOLDS is a pretty snazzy dresser. Crisp, white Timberland jacket, designer tracky bottoms – not tucked in socks, either – and top of the range trainers to complete the look.

Chic chav, if there’s such a thing. And evidence – in barely human form – that you really can’t polish a turd.

You might have read about Reynolds this week. He’s the callous scumbag who charged a vulnerable couple £88,000 interest over seven years for a £500 loan.

In an ocean of loan sharks, Reynolds is a great white. And once he sinks his teeth into you, there’s no escaping.

Just ask Debra Wilson. The mum-of-four suffered two strokes and a brain haemorrhage as she struggled to cope with repayments of up to £1840 a month.

By the time the police got involved, Reynolds was charging an interest rate of 2500 per cent.

That’s criminal, you might think. Well, apparently not. At least not to any great extent. Reynolds walked free from Newcastle Crown Court after blackmail charges were dropped in favour of the lesser charge of harassment.

Excuse me? Harassment? I don’t think so. Harassment is what you get from double glazing reps or aggressive Big Issue sellers.

It’s unpleasant, but it’s not a big enough word to describe the sheer hell endured by Debra Wilson and her husband Kevin.

I can’t be the only one baffled as to why Reynolds was not given the most severe sentence possible under the law for the way he relentlessly preyed on this vulnerable couple.