Cabbies’ secret £200k loan shark sideline

TWO Oldham taxi drivers worked hard to bring in money to support their wives and young families ­— but they had a secret sideline which earned them far more, a court was told.

Zayarit Mahmood (42) and Javid Iqbal (37) were loan sharks, running an illegal money lending business which netted the pair in the region of £200,000 over a period of just over 10 years.

Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard how the two men, who themselves were addicted to gambling, targeted other men hooked by the chance of making a fast buck on the turn of a card or the spin of the roulette wheel.

Raided

They “stalked” local casinos eager to lend ready cash to those whose luck had run out, and to collect debts from winners who were temporarily flush with money.

Ironically, father-of-four Mahmood, is said to have suffered personal gambling losses of more than £50,000.

When his home in Lees Road, Oldham, was raided after an operation involving the Illegal Money Lending Team and Greater Manchester Police, cash totalling more than £68,000 was seized, and a further £5,000 was found at his partner Iqbal’s home on Crabtree Street, Oldham.

The court was told that customers who found it difficult to make repayments on their loans came under severe pressure to do so, getting text messages threatening to reveal their gambling secret to unknowing family members.

One taxi driver addicted to gambling, borrowed thousands of pounds from the pair over a period of several years, having to remortgage his house twice to make loan payments, and finally losing his home.

Jailing them both for 14 months, Judge Jeffrey Lewis told them: “You deliberately preyed on gambling addicts who were vulnerable and subjected them to pressure when they could not make repayments.

“It is impossible to do anything other than impose immediate prison sentences.”

Both men initially denied any wrong doing, and it was only on the third day of a trial earlier this year, that they pleaded to an offence of illegal money lending.

Interest

Simon Mortimer prosecuting, said it was impossible to quantify how much they had made because no records of transactions had been kept, but the two men had agreed a figure of around £200,000.

The court was told they charged £300 for each £1,000 loaned, and sometimes got their money back plus full interest on the same night, from gamblers whose luck was in.

Mr Mortimer said neither Mahmood or Iqbal had ever applied for or been granted a licence to to run a consumer credit business, and customers had no statutory protection or redress. The pair operated from March, 2003, to September, 2013.