“When people are in financial difficulty they sometimes bury their heads in the sand. This could be fatal. They won’t see us coming for them,” one loan shark said.

“If you lose your job and are having difficulty in making payments tell your loan shark,” he said. “If we find out from someone else and have to go looking for you we will be very angry.”

“You won’t like us when we’re angry,” he added. “We’re not as bad as the banks but we’re bad enough.”

Loan sharks are under increasing pressure as clients who fear losing their homes are paying their mortgages to traditional lenders before paying loan sharks.

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