OFT: Loan sharks cause misery to thousands of Brits

Tuesday, May 25th 2010

Loan sharks cause misery to thousands of Britons and people should stop using them, the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said.

The Stop Loan Sharks campaign is run by the body and the Trading Standards Illegal Money Lending Teams and asks Britons to report these lenders.

Ray Watson, director of the OFT's Consumer Credit Group, said: "Loan sharks cause misery to thousands of families and should be stopped. If you have information about loan sharks, report it to the Illegal Money Lending hotline."

He reassured those who have borrowed from loan sharks they are not the ones who have broken the law. However, Directgov states those who lend money without a licence are doing so illegally.

Certain areas of the UK are more likely to contain loan sharks and these tend to be the more deprived areas such as the West Midlands, Scotland and the north of England.

Jacqui Kennedy, director of Regulatory Services at Birmingham City Council, said this option can often seem easy at first but leads to dangerous results.