Glasgow hits back at loan sharks

Glasgow loan sharks assets worth £500,000 have been frozen

A Glasgow project set up to combat loan sharks who target vulnerable Scots has benefited about 500 people, according to a new report.

The pilot scheme, set up by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) in 2004, has shut down loan books worth £250,000 and reported 12 lenders.

Investigators have also frozen loan sharks assets worth £500,000.

The team was praised by Consumer Minister Ian McCartney who visited the Glasgow project.

The project, which has also seen the recovery of £5,000 worth of counterfeit goods and the sentence of three loan sharks, will now have its government funding extended.

My message to the sharks is simple: we are coming for you Ian McCartney Consumer Minister

The minister claimed the report findings send out a strong message to loan sharks that there was "nowhere left to run".

"I am glad that we have been able to ensure that this pilot scheme has the funding to continue hunting loan sharks," he said.

"My message to the sharks is simple: we are coming for you, we are going to shut you down and we will prosecute you. Loan sharks are quite simply scum, they exploit vulnerable people using violence to intimidate them into paying their extortionate rates."

Lessons should be learnt from the hard work and success of both the Glasgow project and a sister initiative in Birmingham, he added.

'Should do more'

Fiona Richardson, of the Glasgow Illegal Money Lending Team, said that loan sharks preyed on the most vulnerable people in society.

She added: "The unit has and will continue to tackle the problem and report matters to the Procurator Fiscal."

Meanwhile Cathy Jamieson, justice minister, pledged that the Labour party would crack down on loan sharks with the introduction of "super-ASBOS" if re-elected in May's Holyrood elections.

She said: "The results in Glasgow are encouraging but it is clear we can and should do more to liberate our communities from those who prey on the most desperate and vulnerable."

"Loan sharks encourage and exist through a climate of fear which can make it difficult to prosecute, because victims and witnesses are terrified to come forward."

Margaret Mitchell, justice spokeswoman for the Conservatives, said that early intervention was needed where people were found to have money problems.

Fine defaulters who had found themselves in debt should be given supervised attendance orders as a first step, she added, to help them sort out their money problems and avoid the need for illegal borrowing.

"Problems need to be dealt with as soon as possible or they are just going to spiral into more of a mess," she said. "We need to stamp out the threatening type of culture of loan sharks."