Post-Christmas loan shark debt could soar to £82m

AROUND 100,000 of the UK's poorest families will be crippled with £82 million of debt in 2010 after borrowing money from loan sharks to fund Christmas, research claimed today.

It is estimated that people on low incomes collectively borrowed 29m from illegal lenders. But once interest rates, which average 825 per cent but can be as high as 1,500 per cent, are taken into account, they will end up having to repay around 82m, according to housing association Circle Anglia.