'I’ve got loads of money so I lend money' - words of loan shark who took £500k from 'desperate' Black Country victims
A 47-year-old loan shark operating in a Black Country town has been jailed after raking in thousands of pounds in profit by exploiting "financially vulnerable" victims.
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Philip Walter who admitted illegal lending and money laundering charges ran his illegal lending operation over a period of around six years, lending more than £375,000 to 58 people and receiving over £515,000.
Sentencing him at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Thursday (May 9), Judge Simon Ward said he was a loan shark who caused ‘human damage’ to the vulnerable people he targeted. He said it was effectively stealing from people by charging interest.
Judge Ward said: “There will be some people for whom the snowballing of interest is as frightening as having their leg broken.”
“These are people that were absolutely desperate and thought that borrowing money from you was their only way out. When you did lend them the money, they had to pay you back at a rate way above anything that was appropriate or reasonable.”
