© Dale Martin/BPM
Borrower are paying at least £700m a year to loan sharks, says Tony Quigley, pictured with some of the weapons and tally books confiscated on their raids.
Borrower are paying at least £700m a year to loan sharks, says Tony Quigley, pictured with some of the weapons and tally books confiscated on their raids.
Sixty victims of loan sharks are in witness protection, according to the country's leading official tasked with breaking the cycle of fear, intimidation and violence trapping families who have borrowed money from illegal lenders.
Tony Quigley, head of the Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) in England, revealed that, across Britain, borrowers were paying at least £700m a year to predatory extortionists. The figure is equivalent to a third of the legal short-term payday loan market, which the Office of Fair Trading last year estimated to be worth £2.2bn.
Comment: Who said that slavery ended? A large number of the world's population today is plagued by great poverty and psychopathic individuals will take advantage, use and abuse them as long as it satisfies their greed; from psychopathic governments to your garden-variety psychopath, the suffering caused is worldwide. Here are just a few recent examples:
Modern slavery, bread and circuses: Official records show 185 Nepalese workers died last year alone on stadium construction sites for Qatar for 2022 Soccer World Cup
Modern slavery: Gullah-Geechee people of Sapelo Island, Georgia being forced off by 600% property tax hike
How poverty wages for tea pickers fuel India's trade in child slavery
The Chocolate Wars: A bitter tale of greed and child slavery
Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery Affecting 30 Million Women and Children