Loan sharks

A loan shark is someone who lends money without the appropriate licence.

The Illegal Money Lending Teams work with Doncaster Trading Standards and all other local trading standards services across the country to investigate illegal money lenders. The teams of highly trained investigators track down loan sharks who prey on some of the most vulnerable people in the community.

Loan sharks rarely, if ever, give any paperwork and if payments are missed they often use intimidation and violence to get money from their 'clients'. We urge anyone who has, or who knows of someone with any information about a loan shark, no matter how small to contact the teams in confidence.

Contact

The Illegal Money Lending Teams can be contacted by:

• Telephone (any time of the day or night) on 0300 555 2222
• On-line form at www.stoploansharks.co.uk/report-a-loan-shark 

You can find out more about their work on Twitter and Facebook:

• www.twitter.com/stoploansharks 
• www.facebook.com/stoploansharksproject 

And you can view some of the stories of the victims of loan sharks on YouTube at:
www.youtube.com/user/stoploansharks

Debt advice and help

• GOV.UK offers advice on ways you can pay off your debts, alternatives to bankruptcy and the different types of agreements you can make with your creditors.
• National Debtline provides free advice and resources to help people deal with their debts.
• Business Debtline provides free advice and resources to help people deal with their business finances and business debts.

Safe and legal ways of borrowing money

The Association of British Credit Unions Limited is a trade association for credit unions in England, Scotland and Wales. Credit unions are a safe and legal way of borrowing money.