From the frontlines of Cardiff’s police force to tracking down octogenarian loan sharks

Published

3 years ago

February 26, 2023

admin

Instead of spending his retirement relaxing, or taking up a niche hobby, Nigel currently spends part of his day tracking down pensioners.

The former police officer was just 49 when he retired. Feeling like he was “too young to do nothing”, he went to work as a loan shark investigator.

But he could never have imagined his new job would include hunting down illegal money lenders in their eighties.

He is a member of Stop Loan Sharks Wales (SLSW), a small unit that targets illicit money lenders.

And while most loan sharks are dogged in their harassment and intimidation of anyone who owes them money, not everyone fits the ‘Phil Mitchell’ stereotype.

In one recent case, an elderly woman in her 80s, was given a police caution after she was found to be making illegal loans.

She had used her son – who was in his 40s and had previously been to prison – to help threaten people into paying up.

“But because of her age and the amount involved, she was only issued a caution,” says Ryan, a client liaison officer with the unit. The money involved totalled several thousand pounds.

“As far as we could prove she was only lending to one individual,” Ryan adds, calling it “vicious, opportunistic targeting”.

Another woman in her 80s, currently under investigation by the unit, began making personal loans but quickly became threatening when people couldn’t pay her back.

“She was scaring [victims] with ‘I know where you are, I know where you live’,” Nigel says.

Her case is ongoing and has not yet reached the courts, so few details can be given by SLSW.

‘A tsunami is coming’

Loan sharks, of all ages, are nothing new but there are fears they are profiteering from the misery brought about by the ongoing economic crisis.

But a backlog at the courts, worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic, and a time lag with investigations means the full effects of the cost of living crisis have yet to be seen.

“There might be a bit of a tsunami coming,” Nigel warns.

Ryan says it is “fairly uncommon” to see illegal lenders in their eighties. “Most people are of working age, but it is about a 50-50 split between male and female,” he adds.

Who are loan sharks?

Often they hide in plain sight and are well-known in their local communities.

Nigel and Ryan have spoken to Sky News on condition of anonymity, in part because of the threats the team faces doing their job.

They never work in the same area where they live but after one of his colleagues was accidentally spotted by a loan shark, their car was smashed and protection had to be put in place.

New research commissioned by their unit alongside the Welsh government, confirms fears that current financial hardships could drive more people in Wales to borrow from illegal money lenders.

Some 38% say they are more likely to need to borrow money or credit this year to cover everyday costs, and 50% of those borrowing are doing so to fund everyday living expenses – from food and bills to school uniforms.

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

Established 15 years ago, SLSW is a government-funded agency that works alongside – but is entirely separate from – the police, local authorities, charities, and other agencies.

Most of the unit’s employees are former police officers.

‘Grooming’ their victims

Illegal money lenders, Nigel says, often build up a friendly rapport and lure people in by letting them off the first repayment.

But then, says Nigel, it often gets to the stage where they can’t pay it back.

The relationship is “pretty much grooming”, adds Ryan, who works closely with victims in his role, drawing comparisons to drug dealers or domestic abuse: “People are always stepping on eggshells, they get trained to act in a certain way.”

He says: “You also find people pay different amounts. If you’re not easy to intimidate they’ll still lend to you, just on more favourable terms.

“But the more vulnerable you are, the worse the penalties.”

Individual investigations into the illicit world of illegal money lending can take anywhere from a month to several years.

“We might not even have a victim in the first instance, we might only have the intelligence,” Nigel says.

The Wales unit has 11 live cases currently, with the oldest going back to February 2020. In some years, they might close as many as eight investigations.

And these loan sharks aren’t hidden in the depths of the dark web – these are people well-known in their local communities.

Living off £5 a week

In one case, a loan shark in North Wales would pick up his victims up just before midnight and drive them to a cash point just as their benefits were deposited in their account.

They would take the money, giving their victim mere pocket money to live off – in one case, as little as £5 a week – and keep the rest of the money, including the bank card.

In another, a cooker, fridge, and microwave were taken from a victim’s house when they fell behind with payments.

The maximum sentence

The maximum prison sentence for a loan shark, if successfully convicted, is two years. According to Nigel, investigators will often look to increase that by adding associated crimes to the charge sheet such as actual bodily harm, and sexual assaults.

The highest sentence that Nigel’s unit has achieved is three-and-a-half years, which was handed down to Robert Sparey, 60, of Caerphilly, in 2017. Sparey, who had not worked since 1990, targeted vulnerable people for more than 20 years and used a disabled family member as a “front” for his operation.

He threatened to burn a woman’s house down with her children inside if she did not pay, and told another he would find “heavy-handed” people to enforce the debts.

Similarly, the unit was active in the prosecution of Chris Harvey, a father of 21 children, for three years and four months in 2015. Harvey, who was also from Caerphilly, charged his own family up to 400,000% interest on illegal loans.

£40k in unexplained cash

Among the unit’s more recent successes include the arrest of Clayton Rumbelow from Llanelli who was jailed for 10 months for illegal money lending in October 2022.

Despite being on benefits and with no other legitimate source of income, Rumbelow spent tens of thousands of pounds on holidays over two years. He bought expensive cars and even decorated his house with intimidating animal statues.

“When I went through his bank accounts, I found £40,000 worth of unexplained cash deposits,” says Nigel.

Some people don’t realise they are being exploited or even feel grateful to the lender for helping them out.

One victim told Nigel: “I don’t know what I would have done without him. I couldn’t get money from anywhere else and I couldn’t feed my kids”.

People are also often led to believe that their loan shark debts are lawfully enforceable. In Porthcawl, a doorman moonlighting as a loan shark wrote up contracts for his clients.

“When you actually looked at the contracts themselves, it looked like they came from somewhere legally enforceable,” says Nigel.

“People signed these contracts to buy groceries and believed he was a lawful money lender. But he wasn’t, and these people were desperate and would agree to anything.”

What can you do if you are in debt to a loan shark?

If someone who has lent you money threatens you or is violent, contact the police straight away – even if it is an informal loan from someone you know.

Not all lending needs to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority – for example, informal, one-off loans between friends or family aren’t against the law. If you’re not sure if a loan needs to be authorised by the FCA, get help from your nearest Citizens Advice.

In England, if you think a money lender is operating without being FCA authorised, you can speak in confidence to the Illegal Money Lending Hotline on 0300 555 2222. You can also email the Illegal Money Lending Team at reportaloanshark@stoploansharks.gov.uk or text loan shark and your message to 60003.

In Scotland, you can speak in confidence to the national Trading Standards Scotland team to report an illegal money lender on 0800 074 0878, or report it online to them at www.tsscot.co.uk.

In Wales, you can report concerns about a money lender to the Wales Illegal Money Lending Unit which operates a 24 hour confidential helpline on: 0300 123 33 11.

In Northern Ireland you can contact the Trading Standards Consumerline, telephone 0300 123 6262.

Credit unions also provide a lawful alternative to illegal money lending for people of all income levels. They also promote manageable ways to save money.

You can find out more about credit unions here.

UK

Royal Navy intercepts Russian warship and tanker

Published

9 hours ago

November 23, 2025

admin

Royal Navy intercepts Russian warship and tanker

A Royal Navy patrol ship has intercepted two Russian vessels off the UK coast, the Ministry of Defence has said.

It comes after Defence Secretary John Healey announced last Wednesday that lasers from Russian spy ship the Yantar were directed at RAF pilots tracking it, in an attempt to disrupt the monitoring.

The MoD said on Sunday that in a “round-the-clock shadowing operation”, the Royal Navy ship HMS Severn has intercepted Russian warship RFN Stoikiy and tanker Yelnya off the UK coast in the past fortnight.

The Russian vessels sailed through the Dover Strait and westward through the English Channel, the MoD said.

HMS Severn later handed over monitoring duties to a NATO ally off the coast of Brittany, France, it said, but continued to watch from a distance and remained ready to respond to any unexpected activity.

The ministry added that the UK’s armed forces are on patrol “from the English Channel to the High North” amid increased Russian activity threatening UK waters.

Last week, Russia accused the British government of “provocative statements” after the defence secretary warned the Yantar was nearing the UK.

At a news conference in Downing Street on Wednesday, Mr Healey said the spy ship was on the edge of British waters north of Scotland, having entered wider UK waters over the last few weeks.

He said it was the second time this year the Yantar had been deployed off the UK coast and he claimed it was “designed for gathering intelligence and mapping our undersea cables”.

Mr Healey said the ship had “directed lasers” at pilots of a P-8 surveillance aircraft monitoring its activities – a Russian action he deemed “deeply dangerous”.

In a clear message to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the defence secretary said: “We see you. We know what you are doing. And we are ready.”

The ministry said while tracking the Yantar, Royal Navy frigate HMS Somerset and other civilian ships in the area “experienced GPS jamming in a further demonstration of unprofessional behaviour, intended to be disruptive and a nuisance”.

Russia’s UK embassy dismissed the accusations and insisted the Yantar is a research ship in international waters.

The defence secretary also repeated government plans to increase defence spending and work with NATO allies to bolster European security.

And he stressed how plans to buy weapons and build arms factories will create jobs and economic growth.

A report by a group of MPs, also released on Wednesday, underlined the scale of the challenge the UK faces.

It accused the government of lacking a national plan to defend itself from attack.

The Defence Select Committee also warned that Mr Healey, the prime minister and the rest of the cabinet are moving at a “glacial” pace to fix the issue and are failing to launch a “national conversation on defence and security” – something Sir Keir Starmer had promised last year.

The UK has seen a 30% increase in Russian vessels threatening UK waters in the past two years, according to the MoD.

But the ministry maintained the UK has a wide range of military options at its disposal to keep UK waters safe.

Three RAF P-8 Poseidon aircraft have deployed to Keflavik Air Base in Iceland in the largest overseas deployment of the RAF P-8 fleet so far, the MoD said.

They are conducting surveillance operations as part of NATO’s collective defence, patrolling for Russian ships and submarines in the North Atlantic and Arctic.

The operations come just weeks after HMS Duncan tracked the movements of Russian destroyer Vice Admiral Kulakov, and frigate HMS Iron Duke was dispatched to monitor Russian Kilo-class submarine Novorossiysk.

UK

Ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for Aston Villa game ‘based on false hooligan claims’

Published

9 hours ago

November 23, 2025

admin

Ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans for Aston Villa game 'based on false hooligan claims'

West Midlands Police has defended the ban on Maccabi Tel Aviv fans attending an Aston Villa match after it was claimed that false intelligence was used.

Supporters of the Israeli club were barred from the Europa League fixture at Villa Park on 6 November.

West Midlands Police chief superintendent Tom Joyce told Sky News before the game that a “section” of Maccabi’s fanbase engaged in “quite significant levels of hooliganism”.

According to The Sunday Times, West Midlands Police claimed in a confidential dossier that when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam last year, Israeli fans threw “innocent members of the public into the river”, and added that between 500 and 600 supporters had “intentionally targeted Muslim communities”.

The report also said 5,000 Dutch police officers had been deployed in response.

However, the Netherlands’ national police force has questioned the claims, reportedly describing information cited by its British officers as “not true” and in some instances obviously inaccurate.

Sebastiaan Meijer, a spokesman for the Amsterdam division, told The Sunday Times that he was “surprised” by allegations in the West Midlands Police report, which had linked 200 travelling supporters to the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Mr Meijer denied that his force had such intelligence, adding that the claim was meaningless given the country had a policy of conscription.

Also, Mr Meijer said that Amsterdam’s force “does not recognise” the claim in the British report, attributed to Dutch law enforcement, that Israelis were “highly organised, skilled fighters with a serious desire and will to fight with police and opposing groups”.

The Dutch police added that the only known case of a fan being in the river appeared to involve a Maccabi supporter. While being filmed, he was told he could leave the water on the condition that he said “Free Palestine”.

In an interview with Sky News before the game, West Midlands Police referenced disorder when Maccabi played Ajax in Amsterdam last November.

Mr Joyce said ahead of the Villa Park match: “We’ve had examples where a section of Maccabi fans were targeting people not involved in football matches, and certainly we had an incident in Amsterdam last year which has informed some of our decision-making.

“So it is exclusively a decision we made on the basis of the behaviour of a sub-section of Maccabi fans, but all the reaction that could occur obviously formed part of that as well.”

Maccabi’s visit to Birmingham came amid heightened tensions due to Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.

A safety advisory group (SAG) recommended that Maccabi fans should be banned from attending the fixture on the advice of the police. The ban drew criticism, and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said it was the “wrong decision”.

West Midland Police’s statement in full

Following The Sunday Times report, West Midlands Police stood by its “information and intelligence”, adding that the “Maccabi Fanatics… posed a credible threat to safety”.

In a statement to Sky News, the force said: “West Midlands Police’s evaluation was based primarily on information and intelligence and had public safety at its heart.

“We assessed the fixture between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv in Amsterdam as having involved significant public disorder.

“We met with Dutch police on 1 October, where information relating to that 2024 fixture was shared with us.

“Informed by information and intelligence, we concluded that Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters – specifically the subgroup known as the Maccabi Fanatics – posed a credible threat to public safety.

“The submission made to the SAG safety advisory group was based on information and intelligence which helped shape understanding of the risks.

“West Midlands Police commissioned a peer review, which was conducted by UKFPU [United Kingdom Policing Unit], the NPCC [National Police Chiefs’ Council] and subject matter experts.

“This review, carried out on 20 October, fully endorsed the force’s approach and decision-making.

“We are satisfied that the policing strategy and operational plan was effective, proportionate, and maintained the city’s reputation as a safe and welcoming place for everyone.”

Sky News has approached Dutch police for comment.

UK

Titanic couple’s pocket watch sells for record £1.78m

Published

9 hours ago

November 23, 2025

admin

Titanic couple's pocket watch sells for record £1.78m

A gold pocket watch that belonged to an elderly couple who drowned as the Titanic sunk has sold for a record-breaking £1.78m at auction.

The 18-carat Jules Jurgensen engraved watch was owned by first class passenger Isidor Straus, who died when the ship sank in April 1912.

He and his wife Ida were portrayed in the film Titanic as a couple who held each other as the ship went down.

When he was offered a seat on a lifeboat due to his age, he replied that he would not go before other men.

His wife refused to leave him, and the couple were last seen alive sitting on deckchairs, facing fate by each other’s side.

They were among very few first class passengers to perish in the disaster.

The watch was recovered from Mr Straus’s body along with other personal items and returned to his family.

It had been a present for his 43rd birthday in 1888 – the same year he became a partner in the New York department store, Macy’s.

The watch, which had remained in the couple’s family, was sold at Henry Aldridge & Son Auctioneers in Devizes, Wiltshire.

The £1.78m for the item is the highest amount ever paid for Titanic memorabilia, according to the company.

A letter written by Mrs Straus on Titanic stationery and posted while onboard the ship fetched £100,000.

The previous record was set last year when another gold pocket watch presented to the captain of a boat that rescued over 700 passengers from the liner sold for £1.56m.