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.”
A 31-year-old British man is one of 14 people who were killed when an alleged Islamic State supporter drove a truck into crowds celebrating the New Year in New Orleans.
Edward Pettifer, from Chelsea, west London was killed in the attack, the Metropolitan Police confirmed.
His family said it was “devastated” by his death.
“He was a wonderful son, brother, grandson, nephew and a friend to so many,” the family said in a statement.
“We will all miss him terribly. Our thoughts are with the other families who have lost their family members due to this terrible attack. We request that we can grieve the loss of Ed as a family in private.”
New Orleans’ coroner said the preliminary cause of death for Mr Pettifer was blunt force injuries.
Dozens of people were injured when 42-year-old army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar‘s rented truck rammed into people in New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the attack was “premeditated” and an “evil” act of terrorism, and added Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS”, also known as Islamic State.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office told Sky News: “We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in New Orleans and are in contact with local authorities.”
The coroner has also identified the majority of the victims in the attack.
They are:
- Andrew Dauphin, 26, from Montgomery, Alabama
- Kareem Badawi, 23, from Baton Rouge, Louisiana
- Brandon Taylor, 43, from Harvey, Louisiana
- Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, from Gretna, Louisiana
- Matthew Tenedorio, 25, from Picayune, Mississippi
- Ni’Kyra Dedeaux, 18, from Gulfport, Mississippi
- Nicole Perez, 27, from Metairie, Louisiana
- Reggie Hunter, 37, from Prairieville, Louisiana
- Martin Bech, 27, from New York City, New York
- Terrence Kennedy, 63, from New Orleans, Louisiana
- Elliot Wilkinson, 40, from Slidell, Louisiana
- William DiMaio, 25, from Holmdel, New Jersey
Some of the victims of the New Orleans attack, clockwise from top left: Reggie Hunter, Martin ‘Tiger’ Bech, Nicole Perez and Matthew Tenedorio
William DiMaio (left) and Terrence Kennedy
The identity of one other victim is unknown, with efforts to identity the female continuing.
The preliminary cause of death for all the victims is blunt force injuries, according to the New Orleans coroner.
The FBI has also revealed that before his attack, Jabbar set fire to a house he had rented in an effort to destroy evidence.
He had placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it, according to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms.
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But the fire, which was started in the hallway, had extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms.
Bomb-making materials were found both at the rented accommodation in New Orleans and Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas. A home-made device suspected of being a rifle silencer was also found in the New Orleans home.
Federal authorities also revealed on Friday that Jabbar had reserved the vehicle used in the deadly attack more than six weeks earlier.
The FBI has said 35 people were injured in the attack, but it expects this number to rise in the coming days as more people go to hospital or contact the bureau.
The University Medical Centre New Orleans said it treated 30 patients who were injured in the attack. Some 13 remain in the hospital’s care, including eight in the intensive care unit.
Meanwhile, federal investigators say Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in the two functional improvised explosive devices (IEDs) placed by him before the attack, according to Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
The explosive has never been used in any US or European terror attack, officials said. Authorities are now investigating how Jabbar knew how to make this homemade explosive, and why the IEDs did not go off.
Nigel Farage has said Tommy Robinson “won’t be” joining Reform UK after Elon Musk showed support for the jailed far-right activist on social media.
The billionaire owner of X, who has spoken positively about Reform UK and is reportedly considering making a donation to the party, has been critical of the government’s handling of child sexual exploitation across a number of towns and cities more than a decade ago.
While the Reform UK leader described the billionaire owner of X as “an absolute hero figure, particularly to young people in this country”, he distanced himself and his party from Robinson, who is currently serving an 18-month prison sentence for contempt of court.
Mr Musk endorsed the far-right activist and claimed Robinson was “telling the truth” about grooming gangs, writing on X: “Free Tommy Robinson”.
Speaking to broadcasters ahead of the start of Reform UK’s East Midlands Conference tonight, party leader Mr Farage did not directly address Mr Musk’s comments, but said: “He has a whole range of opinions, some of which I agree with very strongly, and others of which I’m more reticent about.”
He went on to say that having Mr Musk’s support is “very helpful to our cause”, describing him as “an absolute hero figure, particularly to young people in this country”.
He continued: “Everyone says, well, what about his comments on Tommy Robinson? Look, my position is perfectly clear on that. I never wanted Tommy Robinson to join UKIP, I don’t want him to join Reform UK, and he won’t be.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has said that Tommy Robinson will not be joining the party
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Later on GB News, Mr Farage added that Mr Musk “sees Robinson as one of these people that fought against the grooming gangs”.
“But of course the truth is Tommy Robinson’s in prison not for that, but for contempt of court,” he said.
Mr Farage added: “We’re a political party aiming to win the next general election. He’s not what we need.”
How did Elon Musk become involved?
The online campaign from Mr Musk began after it emerged that Home Office minister Jess Phillips had denied requests from Oldham Council to lead a public inquiry into child sexual exploitation in the borough, as the Conservatives had done in 2022.
In a letter to the authority in Greater Manchester, Ms Phillips said she believes it is “for Oldham Council alone to decide to commission an inquiry into child sexual exploitation locally, rather than for the government to intervene”.
An Oldham Council spokesman previously said: “Survivors sit at the heart of our work to end child sexual exploitation. Whatever happens in terms of future inquiries, we have promised them that their wishes will be paramount, and we will not renege on that pledge.”
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Mr Musk posted on X multiple times about the scandal, and claimed Sir Keir Starmer had failed to bring “rape gangs” to justice when he led the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). In 2013, Sir Keir introduced new guidelines for how child sexual abuse victims should be treated and how a case should be built and presented in court.
The SpaceX and Tesla boss also endorsed posts about Robinson.
Robinson, who is 42 years old and whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, admitted at Woolwich Crown Court in October to breaching an injunction banning him from repeating libellous allegations against a Syrian refugee schoolboy, after he was successfully sued for libel in 2021.
A specialist team in Bristol says more research is needed into flat head syndrome, a condition which is thought to affect up to 40% of babies.
Southmead Hospital runs the only NHS clinic offering helmet therapy for infants with flattened heads.
The advice to lie babies on their backs to prevent cot deaths is one of the most successful public health interventions, but can cause babies to develop a flat head.
3D software is used to help create bespoke helmets with a 3D printer
Most cases are mild and self-correct over time, but babies with moderate to severe cases can be referred to experts in Bristol for cosmetic treatment.
The reconstructive science team takes photos of babies’ heads which are run through 3D software, to help create bespoke helmets with a 3D printer.
Babies usually from the age of six months are advised to wear the helmets for 23 hours a day.
The helmet corrects the condition by relieving pressure on the flat side.
It is a unique clinic; the only NHS trust in the country offering helmet therapy for babies with flat heads, known as plagiocephaly or brachycephaly.
Elsewhere, parents have to go privately, and at a cost of £2,500, it can be prohibitively expensive.
Mum Becky Darby and baby Leo
‘There’s not a lot of information out there’
We met mum Becky Darby and her one-year-old son Leo at the Bristol clinic.
Becky says she became worried about the shape of his head when he was four months old. “One side of his head was flat and the rest was perfectly round, but where he was constantly lying on it, it was getting flatter,” she said.
Becky was frustrated by the lack of guidance.
“I didn’t know what I was doing, and there’s not a lot of information out there,” she said.
Leo has been wearing his helmet for five months, and his progress is regularly monitored.
Disputed evidence
Data around flat head syndrome is scarce, and scientists at the clinic are carrying out research to investigate further.
Becky Darby said getting the helmet treatment was the ‘best decision’ she has made
The NHS has said the evidence that the helmets work is “not clear”, and that they can cause other problems like skin irritation and rashes.
“These helmets and headbands generally are not recommended,” according to the NHS.
Senior reconstructive scientist Amy Davey wants to increase awareness and is creating a tool to assess babies, which will help find the “right treatment pathway” for infants.
“There certainly needs to be more research into providing understanding behind when and where we can go and help with helmet therapy, and where there are alternatives,” she said.
Clinicians agree that more research is needed but warn parents should not be put off lying sleeping babies on their backs.
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Parents still advised to lie babies on their backs
Dr Joanna Garstang is a community paediatrician and adviser for the cot death charity the Lullaby Trust.
She told us that while flat head syndrome is common, “in nearly all cases it just resolves spontaneously as the baby grows and begins to sit up and crawl”.
Lying babies on their backs is a public health success story, reducing the number of sudden infant deaths by 90% since the late 1980s.
“Even if parents are worried about flat head, putting the baby on the back to sleep is by far the safest way for the baby to sleep. If they’re worried about flat head they should talk to their GP or health visitor,” Dr Garstang said.
Becky Darby says choosing helmet therapy is “the best decision” that she took.
As for Leo, his helmet is working and should be off soon.
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