A new campaign is being launched by the Office of Fair Trading to inform people about the dangers of doing business with loan sharks.

The new campaign will see 200,000 leaflets distributed to warn people about taking out loans from illegal lenders, who can often become violent and demanding when they are not repaid.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) have said that will particularly be targeting households in the North of England, Scotland and the West Midlands as these areas contain around half of the homes reported to borrow cash from loan sharks.

A spokesperson for the OFT said: “Unlicensed loan sharks will often offer cash loans without paperwork, they may take benefit or bank cards as security, and threaten or use violence to get money,”

Some 11,500 people have already been helped by the OFT who have worked to write off £31million worth of illegal loans as well as some loan sharks being given prison sentences for their activities and behaviour.

The main points highlighted by the campaign are the excessively high interest rates charged on illegal loans as well as the threat of violence from some doorstep loan sharks who target low income households and demand repayments at short notice.