Loan shark victims 'live in fear'

Most loan shark victims have been too afraid to give statements to police, a minister has told MSPs.
Only one in five victims were prepared to report their experiences and even fewer were prepared to go to court and give evidence.

Deputy Communities minister Des McNulty said the Scottish Executive and the UK Government were determined to crack down on the problem.

He was speaking during a debate on the issue in the Scottish Parliament.

A government-funded pilot task force aimed at tackling illegal money lending has been established in Glasgow and covers the whole of Scotland.

Mr McNulty said: "Illegal lending operations in Scotland tend to be on a much smaller scale and to be embedded in very local communities.

"This is in turn has reinforced the difficulties in persuading any witnesses to come forward, knowing that they could very probably be identified.

"If this happened they know that they risk being targeted."

The law on the issue is reserved to Westminster but Mr McNulty said enforcement depends on partnership between the Department of Trade and Industry and the Scottish Executive.

The Glasgow scheme has already led to more than 20 individuals being reported to the procurator fiscal and loan books worth about £250,000 being shut down.

Both the Glasgow pilot and a similar scheme in Birmingham, covering the West Midlands, have seen an estimated 1,800 victims benefiting from the removal of illegal lenders, with borrowers saving a potential £3.3m.

Social acceptability

Tory justice spokeswoman Margaret Mitchell said the police have a vital role to play in dealing with money lenders.

She said: "It is also essential to ensure that credit unions have the capacity to offer instant loans and to manage high risk borrowers."

SNP justice spokesman Kenny MacAskill said: "We also have a significant problem in Scotland from predatory lending, many of whom are front companies - sometimes for the major high street banks making these vast profits."

Green MSP Patrick Harvie condemned the activities of loan sharks but said part of the problem was the growing social acceptability of large amounts of debt.

SSP leader Colin Fox condemned illegal money lenders - saying they had even forced some vulnerable customers into drug dealing or sexual exploitation.

Mr Fox said: "The rates of interest that members have talked about from loan sharks are rightly disgraceful, they're outrageous."

Source :- news.bbc.co.uk