Loan sharks demand sex to pay debts

Jan 19 2009 by Emma McKinney, Birmingham Mail

BIRMINGHAM loan sharks are forcing vulnerable women into having sex with them to pay off their debts as more people plunge into the red as the recession bites.

Staff at the Birmingham-based Stop Loan Sharks project say they are being contacted by an increasing number of women, particularly single mums, left distraught by sex fiend money-lenders if they say they can not afford to meet loan repayments.

Other borrowers of the illegal loans are beaten up or threatened with violence, while some sharks hold people to ransom by keeping their bank cards or Post Office books or even turn to their friends or relatives to pay-up the debt.

A spokeswoman for the Government-funded project, said: “Loan sharks prey on the most vulnerable members of society and are often engaged in a wider web of illegal or dangerous activity.

“We have unearthed crimes including kidnapping, counterfeiting, assault, wounding, blackmail and sexual intimidation. They work within a community, often starting out as a ‘friend’, offering to help with someone in financial trouble, then becoming aggressive when that person can’t pay.

“They charge extortionate interest rates, trapping their victims in a cycle of debt, lending money so they can repay an on-going debt, so the amount owed keeps increasing.

“We would urge people never to use them.”

The Stop Loans Sharks project, which started as a pilot project in the West Midlands in 2004 but has proved such a success it has been rolled out to places across the country, has so far helped more than 7,000 victims, written off over £8 million of illegal debt, secured over 30 years’ prison sentences and found log books containing £4.6million in loans.