Loan sharks causing 'misery' by exploiting coronavirus with illegal money rackets
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Crimestoppers has now issued an urgent plea for anyone who knows anything about the illegal money-lending rackets in the Sherburn area of Durham to get in touch anonymously.
A statement from the charity said: “Loan sharks charge extortionately high interest rates. They operate without a licence and prey on vulnerable people at a really difficult time in their life.
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Hide Ad"Then if payments are missed, their behaviour changes and they often resort to threats, intimidation, and violence. Many victims are pressured into borrowing even more money to pay off the original debt.”
Ruth McNee, North-East regional manager at the charity, said: “Illegal money lending is a despicable crime, taking advantage of people at their most vulnerable time and then frightening them by using intimidation and violence to impose ridiculously high interest rates.
"If you know who these people are, or have any information that could help us to make this practice stop, please contact us.
“At Crimestoppers, our charity has kept our promise of anonymity since we began over 32 years ago, so you can trust that when you tell us anything, no one will ever know.
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Hide Ad"Anyone can contact us online via our simple and secure untraceable online form at www.crimestoppers-uk.org, or you can call our 24-hour UK Contact Centre on freephone 0800 555 111.
"The number will not show up on any phone bill and we are not interested in who you are, just what you know.”