The England Illegal Money Lending Team is marking a landmark year as it celebrates its 20th anniversary with a record £1.7 million seized from loan sharks in just eight months.
Convicted illegal lenders have been ordered to pay the money back into the public purse under Proceeds of Crime Act confiscation orders. It is the highest amount the team has seen for a single year, and some of it will be ploughed back into the fight against loan sharks in England.
The IMLT was set up in 2004, starting as a small team working on a pilot project to look into illegal lending in the central England area – now it is a national organisation dedicated to investigating and prosecuting loan sharks and supporting borrowers across England. It is still hosted by Birmingham City Council but is funded via the Treasury through a levy.
In the past 20 years, the team has made 850 arrests and secured 424 successful prosecutions, with illegal lenders locked up for more than 606 years. More than £91.3 million in illegal debt has been written off, and around 32,000 borrowers have been supported.
This year has also seen one of its biggest ever prison sentences handed out to a loan shark – seven years for violent criminal Richard Dawson in Barnsley, who kidnapped and assaulted a borrower and forced him to travel in the boot of his car to get cash.
The IMLT has a new acting head of service, Dave Benbow, who said: “This has been a real landmark year for the IMLT not just because of its 20th anniversary, but because of the sentences that are being handed out to illegal lenders and the amount of money we are seeing confiscated.
“It is fitting that some of this money goes back into the fight against loan sharks and we hope this sends a message to illegal lenders out there that this crime doesn’t pay.
“Our officers work incredibly hard on these cases – they don’t just end with conviction or sentence; we continue until we really hit them where it hurts most – in the pocket.”
Dave has taken over at the IMLT, also known as Stop Loan Sharks, from Tony Quigley, who has been at the helm of the IMLT since it launched on September 6, 2004.
He said it began in response to a call for more protection for consumers in the credit market, and a team was created to see if loan sharks were operating within communities.
The first warrant was executed in Birmingham on November 2 that year, where an illegal lender who was giving loans at 100 per cent interest and an APR of around 15,000 per cent, was arrested, charged, and eventually jailed.
Tony said: “There were some that suggested we wouldn’t find illegal lenders or loan sharks, that it was too hidden, but the reality is that once we secured the first arrest, the phone didn’t stop ringing. “We went from one job to the next to the next and the next, in many ways finding our feet as we did. We secured a number of convictions, and we have never looked back.”
Since those days, the face of illegal lenders has changed beyond recognition. Nowadays, they operate more and more on social media and electronic platforms; some borrowers never meet their lender face-to-face. But they still have control over their borrowers, relying on threats and intimidation to make them pay, whether that is physical or online.
Dave said his team was committed to learning and adapting to always ensure we can catch the illegal lenders.
“The illegal lending landscape is a very different one to the one we were faced with 20 years ago. Even in the past couple of years, things have changed rapidly,” he said.
“These lenders are more sophisticated, but our officers have the expertise and skills to ensure they continue to tackle this pernicious criminality. We will not tolerate illegal lending, and we will continue to do everything we can to stop these lenders.”
Dave added that the team’s education and prevention work in communities was also a high priority, and the confiscated funds played a big part in that.
“We want to make sure we are at the forefront of people’s minds when they come across any red flags that indicate the possibility of illegal lending activity,” he said. “So our focus is very much on raising awareness in communities.
“Partnerships with community organisations and bodies like police forces and local authorities are an integral part of our support and intelligence gathering network.
“We have seen how vital that is in cases like the one in Barnsley where the vicious loan shark was jailed for seven years. This was down to close working with local partners, and we managed to build a case that saw this lender prosecuted for kidnapping and assault as well as illegal lending. It ended in a significant sentence, meaning that the whole community is now a little bit safer, and people can breathe a little bit easier.
“Our ultimate aim is to make communities safer and protect the most vulnerable. We can only do this with the help of our partners. Together, we have had a powerful impact over the past 20 years, and we want to build on that.”
One success story within this area is the credit union incentive scheme that the IMLT funds through money seized under POCA.
Credit unions offer a safe alternative to illegal lenders, and the IMLT is working to make sure people are aware of what they can offer and encourage people to sign up by offering a £25 incentive to those who set up an account and save regularly.
Dave said: “Increasing people’s financial resilience and awareness of how to borrow safely helps create a generation that loan sharks have no place in, and the credit union incentive scheme is a proven way to make sure people are borrowing safely.
“Between April 2022 and April 2024, 1,276 members in England opened a credit union account under this initiative. That’s potentially 1,276 people who we have stopped from being targeted by an illegal lender.”
The total amount saved by all members in three months was £129,286.98. The average savings per member at three months was £123.36, rising to £211.40 after a year. Only five members appeared to have removed savings between months three and six.
Twenty two per cent went on to take out a loan with the credit union, totalling £213,188 worth of loans. These loans ranged from £100 to £7,500, and 95% had been repaid in full or were up to date at the time the data was sent.
Dave added: “The data shows that members are using the accounts as intended. There seems to be a genuine desire to build on savings, but also that members are using the savings when needed, before re-building, all leading to increased financial resilience.”
Tony added: “We’re aiming for a seatbelt moment – when I was a kid, you didn’t have to wear seatbelts in cars, now it’s second nature. I want this to be the same with illegal money lending. We put the money back into the community to raise awareness, and we stop the next generation from using illegal lenders so that they don’t even think twice.
“Illegal money lenders erode quality of life for individuals, and we have seen that time and time again. Removing the illegal lender, you just see a complete reversal of all the negatives that have been brought into their lives. That has been a joy to watch.
“I am confident that the IMLT will continue to do that. Dave has been part of the team and has the same passion to move the team forward and stop the loan sharks. I am immensely proud that we were able to build this team in Birmingham for the benefit of communities in England. The partners we have worked with have made the team what it is, and I know the work will continue to reap rewards and changes for those individuals it helps.”
Anyone who has been affected by illegal money lending should call the Stop Loan Sharks 24/7 Helpline on 0300 555 2222 or access support online at www.stoploansharks.co.uk. Live Chat is available on the website from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.
