Gardaí ‘cannot take on’ illegal lenders

Gardaí have said they are powerless to take on illegal moneylenders unless people start giving evidence against these criminals

Their comments follow complaints by St Vincent de Paul that the illegal moneylending business is “thriving” and “nothing is being done to stop them”.

Earlier this week, a Cork woman described on RTÉ’s Liveline how she had gone hungry for weeks and sold her three-piece suite and jewellery so she could make weekly repayments on a €2,000 loan from a moneylender. She lives on social welfare but has to repay €5,000 at €100 a week.

Top gardaí have said it is notably difficult to get victims or witnesses to take cases against lenders as people fear for their safety and that of their families.

Det Supt Sean Healy said gardaí would fully resource any investigation into moneylending but said complaints just were not being made by the public.

“We will deal fully and appropriately with any complaint that is forthcoming. We will take intelligence or evidence but we are not getting either. We can feed intelligence into criminal proceedings.”

St Vincent de Paul assistant president Brendan Dempsey said he had spent 20 years “trying to fight this fight and got nowhere”.

“Politicians don’t want to know about this and then the law is useless as nobody will give evidence. The law is totally deficient in this area. I don’t know how the State can stand over what they are not doing. I see these stories year after year but it is getting worse.”

SVP in Cork set up a credit union scheme whereby for an interest rate of 6% it will guarantor loans of up to €10,000. Illegal moneylenders often charge up to 150% interest while legal moneylenders are allowed charge up to 187%.

Mr Dempsey claims illegal moneylending is growing as it is seen as an “easier way of making money” than drug dealing. “There is enormous profits to be made but the risk of prosecution is much less than, say, drugs.”

Both St Vincent de Paul and Sinn Féin have called for a Criminal Assets Bureau clampdown on illegal moneylending.

Cork North Central TD Jonathan O’Brien of Sinn Féin described illegal moneylenders as “the worst of the worst” and urged gardaí to solve the problem.

“If there is a spate of burglaries, they will set up a unit to investigate but this isn’t happening with moneylending. These profits are ill-gotten gains. CAB focuses a lot on drugs, no reason why they can’t look at much more than drugs?”

Gardaí say CAB’s intervention is not an instant solution either, as for CAB to get involved a crime must be recorded first, assets identified, and the value of the assets ascertained.