British courts jail two loan sharks as recession bites cash-strapped

A MOTHER paid almost $180,000 after taking out a loan of just $1,000 to buy a computer, a court has been told.

British mum-of-four Debra Wilson, 40, suffered two strokes and a brain haemorrhage from the stress of her repayments.

Her neighbour, Robert Reynolds, was yesterday given a 51-week prison sentence, suspended for two years, for harassment with intent to commit violence over the loan.

Mrs Wilson, from Newcastle in England's north, went to Reynolds to buy a computer as a present for her children and ended up borrowing 500 pounds ($1000) from him.

Unable to pay off the loan, she was hit with repayments that skyrocketed to $4,000 per month, forcing her to re-mortgage her home.

Reynolds collected repayments over seven years, claiming the original loan came from violent loan sharks.

Eventually Mrs Wilson was in a home without gas for heating and barely able to afford food.

"Don't, please, get involved in this. It's really not worth the long stressful road that you will be on,'' she said outside court yesterday.

The case comes amid rising concerns that the recession will lead to an explosion of loan shark activity.

British authorities fear that as credit dries up, the cash-strapped will increasingly turn to backstreet money lenders who charge exorbitant interest.

In a separate case yesterday, a ruthless British loan shark who charged vulnerable clients up to 2,437 per cent interest was jailed for five years.

John Kiely, known as Johnny Boy, used a network of enforcers to collect debts from hundreds of residents in Manchester housing estates.

In a five-year reign of terror he earned 2.9 million pounds ($5.86 million) and lived a luxury lifestyle as fearful borrowers were forced into hiding.

Kiely handed out the money from a wad of 20 pound notes from his black Range Rover, and sent around his thugs when repayments did not come back on time.

He earned so much from his loans he was able to pay cash for a $1.7 million mock-Tudor seven-bedroom mansion.

Judge Smith told 36-year old Kiely: "It's clear to me you are a ruthless individual who has displayed a high degree of criminal sophistication.''

Junior consumer affairs minister Kevin Brennan said a crackdown on loan sharks had led to more than 100 prosecutions.

"Thugs like Kiely who prey on vulnerable people cause untold misery within communities," he said.


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