No illegal moneylender successfully prosecuted in past seven years

Nobody has been successfully prosecuted for illegal moneylending in this country over the past seven years, even though it is believed the practice is rife across the country.

A person found guilty of moneylending without a licence is, in the district court, liable to a maximum fine of €3,000 or a maximum imprisonment of 12 months or both. On conviction in one of the higher courts, they are liable to a fine of up to €100,000 or jail for up to five years.

Moneylenders operating without a Central Bank licence can be prosecuted under Section 98 of the 1995 Consumer Credit Act.

However, gardaí say they cannot get people to act as witnesses in moneylending cases and have urged people to come forward.

Justice Minister Alan Shatter said: “I would encourage all those with specific information concerning the operation of unlicensed moneylenders to make that information available to An Garda Síochána who, I am assured, will take all measures open to them to enforce the law in this area.”

He was responding to a query on the matter from Sinn Féin’s Brian Stanley.

Earlier this month, gardaí warned they were powerless to take on illegal moneylenders unless people gave evidence. Their comments followed complaints by St Vincent de Paul that the illegal moneylending business was “thriving” and “nothing is being done to stop them”.

Just a day earlier, a Cork woman described on RTÉ’s Liveline how she had gone hungry for weeks and sold furniture 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 in Cork have said it is notoriously difficult to get victims or witnesses to take cases against lenders as people fear for their safety and that of their families.

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.”