From the frontlines of Cardiff’s police force to tracking down octogenarian loan sharks
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”.
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Loan sharks subject victims to ‘hideous’ things
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.
Sky News has previously witnessed the arrest of Illegal money lenders
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.
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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.”
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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.
Loan sharks prey on vulnerable people in deprived areas of towns like Caerphilly in South Wales
£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.
Clayton Rumbelow was given a jail sentence in October. Pic: SLSW
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”.
Rumbelow decorated his house with expensive and intimidating animal statues. Pic: SLSW
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.”
UK
Manhunt for Epping hotel asylum seeker, jailed for sexually assaulting girl, after accidental release
A manhunt has been launched for an accidentally released asylum seeker who was jailed for 12 months earlier this year after he sexually assaulted a 14-year-old girl and a woman in Epping.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu had been staying at The Bell Hotel in the Essex town, with the incident fuelling weeks of protests at the site.
The Ethiopian national was found guilty of two counts of sexual assault, attempted sexual assault, inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and harassment without violence earlier this month.
District judge Christopher Williams said Kebatu posed a “significant risk of reoffending” when he sentenced him to 12 months in prison in September.
Sky News understands Hadush Kebatu was being released from HMP Chelmsford as he was due to be immediately deported.
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu was jailed for two sexual assaults in Epping. Pic: Essex Police / PA
He was released on the expectation that he would be picked up by immigration enforcement, but it is currently unclear what happened next. It is understood that the Home Office was ready to take Kebatu to an immigration removal centre.
Sky sources say the search for Kebatu is within Essex, which launched a manhunt after he was accidentally freed on Friday morning.
Kebatu’s lawyer, Molly Dyas, told Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court during his trial that it was his “firm wish” to be deported.
Under the UK Borders Act 2007, a deportation order must be made where a foreign national has been convicted of an offence and received a custodial sentence of at least 12 months.
Kebatu was accidentally released from HMP Chelmsford. Pic: iStock
Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy is said to be furious and has ordered an investigation and is supporting police efforts, according to a Government source.
Mr Lammy said in a post on X that he is “appalled at the release in error”, adding: “Kebatu must be deported for his crimes, not on our streets.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage said: “The Epping hotel migrant sex attacker has been accidentally freed rather than deported. He is now walking the streets of Essex. Britain is broken.”
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch said Kebatu was released as a result of “the entire system collapsing under Labour”.
Chelmsford MP Marie Goldman said in a statement following the accidental release: “The police must do everything they can to ensure that this man is returned to custody immediately so that he is deported at once.
“Once the manhunt is over, there must be a full, rapid public inquiry into how this happened. This is utterly unacceptable and has potentially put my constituents in danger. I expect answers from the Prison Service.”
Hadush Gerberslasie Kebatu, left, in a court sketch. Pic: Elizabeth Cook/PA
The Prison Service said in a statement that it was “urgently working with police to return an offender to custody following a release in error at HMP Chelmsford”.
“Public protection is our top priority and we have launched an investigation into this incident,” a spokesperson added.
It is understood that releases in error are incredibly rare and are taken extremely seriously by the Prison Service.
But policing and crime commentator Danny Shadow says that releases in error are actually not uncommon.
“Last year, there were 87 prisoners who were released in error. So that’s around six or so every single month. Seventy were released from error from prisons and another 17 from the courts,” the former Labour home affairs advisor told Sky News.
An officer has been removed from duties to discharge prisoners while the investigation is ongoing.
Kebatu was staying at the Bell Hotel in Epping. Pic: PA
During his trial, the court heard that Kebatu had tried to kiss the teenager, put his hand on her thigh and brushed her hair after she offered him pizza.
The asylum seeker also told the girl and her friend he wanted to have a baby with them and invited them back to the hotel.
The incident happened on 7 July, about a week after he arrived in the UK on a boat.
The girl later told police she “froze” and got “really creeped out”, telling him: “No, I’m 14.”
The Bell Hotel has been the site of protests over the summer. Pic: AP
Kebatu was also found guilty of sexually assaulting a woman – putting his hand on her thigh and trying to kiss her – when she tried to intervene after seeing him talking to the girl again the following day.
The incidents sparked anti-migrant protests and counter-protests outside the former Bell Hotel in Epping – as well as at hotels housing asylum seekers across the country.
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An asylum seeker has been found guilty of murdering a hotel worker at a train station in the West Midlands.
Deng Chol Majek was caught on CCTV following Rhiannon Skye Whyte from the Park Inn hotel, in Walsall, where he lived and she worked, to the nearby Bescot Stadium station.
She was stabbed in the head with a screwdriver 19 times, and 23 times in total, on 20 October last year.
Deng Chol Majek. Pic: PA
Mr Majek, who is from Sudan and claims to be 19 years old, had told Wolverhampton Crown Court he was at the hotel for asylum seekers at the time the 27-year-old was attacked.
A two-week trial heard that Mr Majek had previously been reported to security at the hotel after “spookily” staring at three female staff members for prolonged periods.
Ms Skye died in hospital three days after the attack, having been found injured in a shelter on the platform by the driver and guard of a train which pulled in about five minutes later.
Rhiannon Skye Whyte. Pic: Family handout/PA
Mr Majek, who is about ten inches taller than Ms Whyte, walked to the Caldmore Green area of Walsall after the attack to buy beer, and was recorded on CCTV apparently wiping blood from his trousers.
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He returned to the hotel at 12.13am, changed his bloodstained flip-flops for trainers, and was seen dancing with other residents in the car park, within sight of emergency vehicles called to the station.
Asked by defence KC Gurdeep Garcha if he was at the train station when Ms Whyte was stabbed, Mr Majek replied: “No.”
He also denied being “responsible for that fatal assault” on the platform.
CCTV from the reception area of the hotel alleged to show Deng Chol Majek staring at Rhiannon Whyte, left. Pic: PA
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC said of Mr Majek’s behaviour after the murder: “He is celebrating, his mood has changed from that prolonged scowl before the murder to dancing and joy after the murder. It is utterly callous.”
Mr Majek said he had spent time in Libya, Italy and Germany before arriving in the UK to claim asylum in July last year.
He will be sentenced at a later date.
‘She was always happy’
Rhiannon’s sister, Alex Whyte, said her sibling “always wanted to make everyone else around her happy”.
She said: “Rhiannon had such a quirky personality. You would hear her before you’d see her.
“No matter what her day had been, she always wanted to make everyone else around her happy. She always prioritised family. That was the most important thing to Rhiannon. Obviously, she has a brother and three sisters. And my mum, who was her best friend.”
She added: “Rhiannon is the second youngest. But our baby sister would always say ‘I’m your big little sister’, because Rhiannon was very soft.
“So, no matter what, we always wanted to protect her. That was our priority most of our life, because Rhiannon never saw danger – Rhiannon never understood how scary the world really could be.
“But no matter what Rhiannon was just happy, always.”
Plaid Cymru have won the by-election in the Senedd seat of Caerphilly for the first time.
The Welsh nationalist party secured 15,960 votes – and candidate Lindsay Whittle cried as the result was announced.
Mr Whittle is 72 years old and had stood as a Plaid candidate 13 times since 1983. He will now hold the seat until the Welsh Assembly’s national elections next year.
This by-election was widely regarded as a two-horse race between Plaid Cymru and Reform UK, and the result marks a considerable blow for Nigel Farage.
His candidate Llyr Powell received 12,113 votes – denying a victory that would have strengthened claims that Reform can convert a large lead in opinion polls into election wins.
Nonetheless, the party’s performance is a marked improvement on 2021, when it received just 495 votes.
More than anything, the result is a humiliating and historic defeat for Labour, who had held Caerphilly at every Senedd election since it was created in 1999 – as well as the Westminster seat for over a century.
Its candidate Richard Tunnicliffe secured 3,713 votes and finished in third place, with Welsh Labour describing it as a “by-election in the toughest of circumstances, and in the midst of difficult headwinds nationally”.
Turnout overall stood at 50.43% – considerably higher than during the last ballot back in 2021.
Giving his acceptance speech after the result was confirmed, Mr Whittle began by paying tribute to Hefin David – who was Welsh Labour’s Member of the Senedd for Caerphilly until his death in August.
“He will be a hard act to follow,” Mr Whittle said. “I will never fill his shoes – but I promise you, I will walk the same path that he did.”
The Plaid politician described how he had been “absolutely heartened” by how many young people were involved in the by-election – and said the result sends a clear message.
He said: “Listen now Cardiff and listen Westminster – this is Caerphilly and Wales telling you we want a better deal for every corner of Wales. The big parties need to sit up and take notice.
“Wales, we are at the dawn of new leadership, we are at the dawn of a new beginning – and I look forward to playing my part for a new Wales, and in particular, for the people of the Caerphilly constituency. I thank you with all my heart.”
Mr Whittle quipped Plaid’s victory “was better than scoring the winning try for Wales in the Rugby World Cup”.
And looking ahead to the next year’s elections, he added: “[This] result shows what’s possible when people come together to back practical solutions and protect what matters most.
“We’ve beaten billionaire-backed Reform and, with the same determination, we can do it again in May 2026. Caerphilly has shown the way – now Wales must follow.”
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How tactical voting helped Plaid Cymru
Speaking to Sky’s chief political correspondent Jon Craig just before the declaration, Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth said: “There’s clearly a real significance to the result – we are seeing the disillusionment with Labour writ large. I’ve heard it on hundreds of doorsteps, we’ve seen it in opinion polls.”
He conceded there was tactical voting in this by-election – with Labour and Conservative supporters alike backing Lindsay Whittle to keep out Reform.
However, Mr ap Iorwerth added: “I’ve spoken to literally hundreds and hundreds of people who told me – time and time again – ‘I’ve been a Labour supporter all my life, and we’re backing you this time.’
“Not begrudgingly, but because they see that’s the direction we’re going in – not just in this by-election, but as a nation. I’m calling on people to get behind that positive change – not just today, but ahead of next May.”
First Minister Eluned Morgan congratulated Mr Whittle on his return to the Senedd and said: “Welsh Labour has heard the frustration on doorsteps in Caerphilly that the need to feel change in people’s lives has not been quick enough.
“We take our share of the responsibility for this result. We are listening, we are learning the lessons, and we will be come back stronger.”
The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats were among the parties who lost their deposits.
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