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Raid team targets city loan shark

Nov 22 2009 Sunday Sun

A TEAM targeting loan sharks in the North has celebrated another success.

The North East Illegal Money Lending team carried out a raid on a house in Elswick, Newcastle, where thousands of pounds and handwritten log books were recovered.

The Sunday Sun told how the special squad – set up with Government money – had found incidents of women being forced into prostitution to pay off crippling debts.

Officers have come across loan sharks from Teesside to Northumberland lending money, with annual interest rates as high as 143 billion percent.

In the latest raid, around £6,000 was recovered, along with a series of handwritten books which outlined who had borrowed money and when they have to pay it back.

Investigations are ongoing into the operation after the property, on James Street, was stormed.

Regional enforcement manager Howard Turton said: “It is our belief that we have disrupted a well-organised and highly profitable loan shark business operating in the West End of Newcastle.

“We know from our experience illegal money lenders will target vulnerable people in their hour of need and charge huge rates of APR, meaning they will often end up paying back several thousand times the amount they initially loaned.

“We are determined to crack down hard on this form of illegal activity, which often has links to other forms of criminality, across the North East of England.

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