A chilling message warning a victim of illegal money lending “he will hurt ya” today lifts the lid on a dark underworld of exploitation and control.
He added: “We’ve had illegal money lending investigations where we have spoken to victims and they’ve given us an initial understanding of what has gone on. And maybe short time later that has been withdrawn or retracted. Messages sent and seen by police, the DI says, include telling victims they face a 40% mark-up on their initial borrowing, a pay-by date, warnings that if the pay-back date’s missed they face £25 penalty and eventually more sinister follow-up messages telling people they are “going to get a dig if this isn’t coming soon”.
DI Coriggan added: “I’ve been involved in searches where I’ve seen books that make reference to fruit and veg and different numbers around that, and again it would be my suspicion that that would be a code. But it’s getting that proven, getting it up to an evidential standard is where the difficulty lies.
The PSNI do, however, have concerns about the limitations of current legislation and sentencing for offences linked to illegal money lending. The actual offence of illegal money lending or ‘carrying on a regulated activity in breach of the general prohibition’ which is section 23 of the financial services and markets act carried a maximum sentence of two years. And with connecting the lenders to more serious offences connected to intimidation, this is often the most they will face.