The landlord that helped its customers jail a loan shark

Illegal lending is on the rise nationwide. Rising food, energy and rent bills have squeezed budgets, which, coupled with a £2bn gap in the supply of affordable credit, has driven thousands to look to loan sharks for help. Up to 1.9 million adults in Great Britain turned to unlicensed money lenders in only 12 months, according to research from November 2025 by financial inclusion organisation Fair4All.

In Stoke Aldermoor, Mr Ringrose had a captive market. He bragged about his illegal lending to colleagues at the car parts company where he worked, and used the money to pay for a large extension to his house and cosmetic treatments in Turkey.

But in September 2022, he was reported to West Midlands Police, triggering an investigation into his operations that ended with a prison sentence of more than two years. He was convicted of two counts of illegal lending and two counts of money laundering, and also received three months for breaching an unrelated suspended sentence.

Important evidence in the prosecution was provided by tenants of West Midlands-based social landlord Citizen. Dave Benbow, head of the IMLT – the team that has the power to arrest, charge and prosecute people who lend money without a license from the Financial Conduct Authority, also known as ‘Stop Loan Sharks’ – says Citizen’s support for its customers was “invaluable in the investigation”.

So how can other social landlords spot the signs of illegal lending?

A neutral space

It was June 2024 when Citizen was contacted by an IMLT officer working on LIAISE (this stands for ‘leads in awareness, intelligence, support and education’). A police report had been made about Mr Ringrose, and IMLT believed a Citizen tenant had been among those affected.

“She was very anxious and nervous about speaking to the police, for obvious reasons – out of fear of repercussions,” Sam Johnston, who has been a housing manager at Citizen for 10 years, tells Inside Housing.

In Stoke Aldermoor, “everyone knows everyone”, Mr Johnston says. This is often a positive thing, but it can lead to challenging circumstances.

“The community is very much a closed book. You don’t talk to the police, you don’t talk to any kind of authority,” he says. 

There was a risk. Mr Ringrose or his associates could be following the borrower. To make things more complicated, the tenant was also a carer for her mother, another Citizen resident who lived nearby.

“If you tell someone to report a loan shark, they will run screaming in the opposite direction”

The landlord arranged somewhere neutral for the borrower to meet the IMLT officer, at one of its offices outside her local area. Citizen and IMLT also organised plain-clothes police officers to check on her.

“She was then able to open up a complaint and [explain] the extent of what she was going through, which they then used to help prosecute Mr Ringrose,” Mr Johnston says.

While loan sharks often operate on perceived risk, exerting psychological control rather than following through on threats, sometimes the risk of physical harm to victims is too great. IMLT can have a ‘blue light’ marker put on an address to flag it as high priority to the emergency services. It can also, more rarely, rehouse people.

In this case, the LIAISE officer thought the Citizen resident and her mother weren’t safe where they were currently living. Citizen was then able to give them an offer of new accommodation and supported their move. The landlord also shared necessary information to help with the investigation and prosecution of Mr Ringrose.

“We provided support and put measures in place to help [the borrower] manage her money in general. She had advice from our in-house money advice team, as well as support from income services,” Mr Johnston explains.

Historically, most of the victims IMLT works with live in either social housing or private rented accommodation. In 2024, just under half (49%) of borrowers were living in social housing, and 21% were in private rented accommodation.

Loan sharks typically target vulnerable groups of people, including those who are on low incomes or unemployed, older people and individuals with poor credit histories.

Social landlords are a key source of intelligence, says Cath Wohlers, LIAISE manager at IMLT. People might leave their housing, fall behind on rent or report threats and intimidation because of a loan shark. These are all signs staff can pick up on.

Housing associations “are in a fantastic position to intervene early”, says Jake Attfield, head of strategy at Fair4All Finance. Housing associations can make it clear that borrowers aren’t committing a crime if they do take out an illegal loan. Lending money illegally is a criminal offence, and illegal debt is not enforceable.

“If you tell someone to report a loan shark, they will run screaming in the opposite direction,” Ms Wohlers says.

Instead, IMLT recommends saying there is a specialist agency that can support them for this type of debt, or contacting the team on the resident’s behalf.

IMLT also offers free bespoke staff training to housing associations, and Ms Wohlers encourages organisations to reach out to her.

While IMLT doesn’t have physical premises, last year it set up a national network of access points, and housing association staff can undergo training to help people make initial contact with IMLT in a safe space, as well as provide emotional support. 

“Housing associations understand that many residents face financial difficulties and work to ensure they have better alternatives to loan sharks,” says Matthias Barker, policy leader for finance at the National Housing Federation (NHF).

“Housing associations have pledged not to evict anyone as a result of financial hardship, where a resident is engaging to get payments back on track.”

The pledge was originally introduced during the Covid-19 pandemic and was extended in 2021, and all NHF members – including Citizen – are signed up to it.

Arrests and sentencing

In May 2023, after a months-long investigation, Mr Ringrose was arrested and released on bail, on the condition that he should not contact prosecution witnesses. 

Analysis of his bank accounts since November 2016 revealed that over the past seven years, he had taken in bank payments and cash worth more than £97,000 and racked up debits and cash withdrawals totalling £94,500.

Yet despite his bail conditions, Mr Ringrose continued to lend and collect money illegally.

In July 2024, Mr Ringrose was arrested again. During a search of his property, IMLT officers discovered a blue folder hidden under the carpet of the bottom stair, containing loan records from June 2024.

One borrower mentioned in the records had paid more than £10,000 in cash to Mr Ringrose over the past year, leaving an outstanding debt of £62,500. Clearly, the prosecution argued, Mr Ringrose had switched to dealing primarily in cash after his arrest to cover his tracks.

Mr Ringrose’s defence claimed he initially did not realise he was acting illegally, did not pressure people into lending from him and was remorseful. But the judge concluded that Mr Ringrose had tried to conceal his lending, such as by asking borrowers to refer to loans as “baccy” in messages. He pleaded guilty to both sets of offences.

His intimidation tactics continued during the investigation and prosecution as well. He kept tabs on borrowers, checking one person’s phone regularly to see if she had spoken to the police or IMLT. When he saw she had, he told her to tell them that she would not make a statement and did not want any further contact. 

“It takes a few brave people to come forward and have a conversation with us, and then we can take loan sharks down”

One day, he drove up beside her as she walked down the street and took her to a cash machine, where she withdrew £200 and asked to keep £40. He agreed on the condition that she would owe him £80 next week, keeping her locked in an infinite loop of debt.

Mr Ringrose admitted two charges of illegal money lending and money laundering in October 2024 and was sentenced to 28 months in jail for those offences. Though he has now been released from jail, he still has to abide by a 10-year restraining order in relation to one borrower and a criminal behaviour order for five years, which means he is prohibited from entering the Stoke Aldermoor area.

For the Stoke Aldermoor community, the sentencing showed he was not above the law. 

“I’d say he’s probably the worst I’ve come across,” Mr Johnston says. Citizen has since continued to support IMLT in its investigations into other loan sharks, providing CCTV footage and data such as access fob activity.

“Lots of customers living in social housing, on low incomes, are open to exploitation,” he adds. Landlords should “identify those in need of support and reassure their customers that there are options available to them”.

Loan sharks are often viewed as untouchable, IMLT’s Ms Wohlers says. “They [spread] the idea that either no one’s going to grass on me, or ‘I’m doing nothing wrong. You took this loan out – that’s on you, not me’.

“It’s good that people know this isn’t the case, that it takes a few brave people to come forward and have a conversation with us, and then we can take loan sharks down.”