Dad's haunting story of borrowing money from loan shark who made his life a misery
Stop Loan Sharks have a released an anonymous interview with 'George' from the West Midlands - a dad who borrowed money accidentally from a loan shark who was essentially a family friend.
The loan shark went on to make his life a misery.
The loan shark went on to make his life a misery.
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00:00 I started off borrowing from him probably about 16, 15, 16 years ago.
00:05 It was £500 and it was so we could get married.
00:09 We were just a bit short. We still had a few things to get so it came to light that my mother-in-law had this guy
00:19 and said, "We can ask him for you if you want." I was like, "Okay, great."
00:24 At the time it was just convenient.
00:26 If someone shows up at your house and says, "Here's a bundle of cash. You can pay me back a little bit over time,"
00:32 then you're going to snap their hand off.
00:35 It was just convenient, more than anything else.
00:38 To start off with, it was alright. He was practically a family friend.
00:43 That's the way I always looked at it. My wife knew him a lot longer than I did.
00:47 It was always sorted out when I borrowed it, that this is how much you pay him back.
00:52 I always told him the date I got paid, how much I pay him.
00:56 He always turned up, took his money and that was it. We left it at that.
01:00 It was quick and easy and done.
01:02 It was always alright. It was only when COVID hit and health took a turn that he started really putting pressure on me
01:12 and trying to be intimidating and coming out with comments to my wife and making comments in front of my daughter.
01:20 That was when problems started.
01:22 He used to knock on on purpose, knowing I wasn't there.
01:26 Even though I told him specifically, "If my car's not here or my van's not here, I'm not here."
01:31 And I said that to him a million times.
01:34 And yet he still turned up when he knew I was at work and he knew my wife was on her own.
01:41 I mean, over the years, he got a bit worse with it.
01:49 It started off with wearing sexy underwear and wearing sexy bras and pants and stuff like that.
01:58 Or if she was going to the door in leggings.
02:01 It started off with stuff like that.
02:04 And then I heard on the grapevine from other people that I found out afterwards that he was trying to make out that if they gave him sexual favours,
02:12 they'd be able to pay some of their money off.
02:15 I've got a 14-year-old girl. She didn't feel comfortable in her own house when he was there.
02:21 It got to the stage toward the end where she just stopped answering the door because she knew he was there.
02:28 It was £70 on every £100 that I used to borrow.
02:35 So if I borrowed £100, I had to pay back £170. I borrowed at least £10,000. I'm paying back £17,000.
02:45 When you've got four kids, Christmas is always a struggle.
02:53 He got a bit more persistent at Christmas.
02:59 He always made you think that you have to pay him more than anything else, more than your rent or anything like that.
03:09 Over the years, I've had countless loans and paid him stupid amounts of money and everything like that.
03:17 And it was only when one random afternoon, I had a knock on the door, two guys turned up and they were like,
03:23 "We're the illegal money lending team. Do you know this person?"
03:27 And I was like, "Yeah."
03:29 A bit sketchy. Not very often you get people knocking on the door, asking about other people.
03:34 Explained everything that happened and the fact that he was actually in a load shop and he was just profiting off vulnerable people.
03:41 Think of it in the grand scheme of things.
03:47 At the end, when the illegal money lending team came round, I owed him just over £1,100.
03:56 And that wasn't outweighed by the anger that I felt from being mugged off,
04:03 knowing that I've subsidised somebody's life, somebody's lifestyle.
04:08 Yeah, it was more anger than anything else.
04:13 Call the illegal money lending team.
04:18 They're a fantastic group of people.
04:20 They sympathise with the situation.
04:25 They don't make you feel like an idiot.
04:27 They're just so helpful and they point you in the right direction.
04:34 They ring you, give you phone calls just to make sure you're doing alright.
04:38 They're so helpful. They're a really, really nice bunch of people.
04:42 I'm still angry. I'm still angry with the whole situation, but I think it's more the fact that for years I've been mugged off and plagued.
04:54 And that's... It's going to take a while for me to calm down from that fact.
05:00 You took advantage of people when they were in financial difficulty.
05:08 And if you feel like you're under pressure to pay somebody back money, call them.
05:15 Worst case scenario is they check them out, everything's above board, and you carry on as you're going.
05:23 But don't ever feel intimidated by anyone to pay them money back, because you should never feel that way.
05:30 [Music]