9th September 2019
One Friday afternoon Rachel found she had run out of money for food for the weekend, she couldn’t borrow from her friends and had two young children to feed. Rachel had heard about a guy who could help out with short term small loans. Rachel called this guy, who quickly loaned her £45 for the weekend so she get food. No paperwork was completed. Rachel was told she had to pay the £45 back plus another £45 by the end of the following week. The following week Rachel could only pay back £60, so the Loan Shark doubled what Rachel owed to£180, but Rachel couldn’t pay that back by the end of each week in full either. Every week the amount Rachel owed doubled. Within four weeks Rachel owed the Loan Shark £2880. The Loan Shark made Rachel do other things in order to pay part of the loan off. Rachel had become a slave to the Loan Shark.
She was in pain, felt trapped and was at a loss of what to do because she was worried the Loan Shark would hurt her. Rachel had heard when she went to her local community hub library that Money Buddies provide a safe, anonymous, confidential and private space for reporting Loan Sharks to the Illegal Money Lending Team- who are able to find ways of prosecuting Loan Sharks while keeping witnesses safe and anonymous. The Money Buddy introduced Rachel using the Money Buddy’s phone to the Stop Loan Shark team, who explained to Rachel how they work. As a result of this help and support the Loan Shark was caught and successfully prosecuted. Rachel is now happier and can get on with her life.