'Loadsamoney' loan shark starts jail term

MAN RAN ILLEGAL LENDING OPERATION AND CAUSED 'HUMAN DAMAGE'

- ISABELLE BATES News Reporter

A CALLOUS loan shark who caused “human damage” has begun a jail sentence of 30 months.

Philip Walter admitted making thousands of pounds in profit by exploiting the ‘financially vulnerable’ and bragged about having ‘loads of money’

Walter, 47, of Beeches Road, West Bromwich, admitting illegal lending and money laundering charges at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Walter was sentenced to 22 months in jail for the money laundering offences and eight months for illegal lending, to run consecutively. There was no order for costs.

Passing sentence, Judge Simon Ward told him he was a loan shark who caused ‘human damage’ to the vulnerable people he targeted.

The court was told he didn’t use violence or direct threats, but Judge Ward said: “There will be some people for whom the snowballing of interest is as frightening as having their leg broken.”

He said it was effectively stealing from people by charging interest, and told Walter: “These are people that were absolutely desperate and thought that borrowing money from you was their only way out.