“They make it feel like it’s your fault,” says Cath Wohlers of loan sharks. They use manipulation, isolation and coercive control and they ruin lives, as she describes in this new podcast interview.
Earlier this year a Centre for Social Justice report estimated 1.08 million people in England alone are currently using illegal moneylenders, who prey on financially vulnerable people.
Cath is LIAISE Manager for the England Illegal Money Lending Team. Sharks aren’t always easy to recognise. Two thirds of people who the team supported last year thought they were borrowing from a friend, not a loan shark.
She explains the Team’s activities during national Stop Loan Sharks Week, its #LetsTalkLoanSharks campaign, and its work all year around on prevention, investigation, prosecutions, seizing sharks’ assets, and helping people avoid and escape sharks.
And she describes the simple things you can and should do to help. Listen to this important episode to find out.
Here’s the episode to play or download. You can also find it in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and other podcast apps.
What next?
- Contact the England Illegal Money Lending Team hotline (24/7) 0300 555 22 22. Here is the website (plus live chat and YouTube links).
- Please share the podcast, tell others about it, and ideally leave a rating or review so other people can learn about the work and impact of responsible finance providers.
- Read our article, The sharks’ feeding frenzy and how to starve them
- Read this FT article from late 2021 which covered how CDFIs help people avoid loan sharks.
- Read Iona Bain’s article in the i newspaper which explains that illegal moneylenders come in many guises and are embracing social media to ensnare people.
- Find your nearest responsible finance provider: www.findingfinance.org.uk
- And if you’re a responsible finance provider or a client and you’d like to put yourself forward to be on the show, get in touch – email podcast producer, Jamie Veitch.