Case study: 'Twenty-five per cent a week, or 11 million APR'

POLICE have had limited success in targeting loan sharks, but did successfully prosecute Gerard Law, who charged the equivalent of 11 million per cent interest a year.

Law targeted the poor and vulnerable, such as those on benefits, single mothers and alcoholics - demanding interest at a crippling rate of 25 per cent a week. A loan or credit card that dared charge the same terms would have an annual percentage rate (APR) of just under 11 million per cent - so a 100 debt, if left unpaid, could spiral to a massive 11 million in just one year.

Over a six-year period, Law left his victims terrified of missing a payment because of his hard-man reputation.

But the loan shark was caught by the Scottish Illegal Money Lending Unit after a surveillance operation at the Argosy Bar in Glasgow's Paisley Road West.

In 2006, Law, 56, of Hillington, Glasgow, was jailed at the city's sheriff court after admitting loan sharking. Investigators found the teetotaller spent around six hours a day in the pub, where up to 18 people a day were seen to approach him. A raid on his home recovered 9,000 cash and 150,000 was found in several bank accounts.