Taxi Driver Online

UK cab trade debate and advice
It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 9:20 am

All times are UTC [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 
Author Message
PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:58 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:47 pm
Posts: 19110
Location: Stamford Britains prettiest town till SKDC ruined it
plymouth story

A loan shark who lent money to taxi drivers at huge rates of interest has blown almost £400,000 of his ill-gotten gains.

Mark Constantine, aged 56, was only left with £20,000 from four years of dodgy deals with desperate drivers, a court heard.

A judge has ordered him to hand over the money or face nine months in prison.

Constantine charged an average of more than 100 per cent interest, Plymouth Crown Court heard in May last year.

The former motor dealer arranged 70 deals with dozens of cabbies desperate for help.

He was unlicensed and unregulated and used what a judge called “an element of pressure” to make sure he was paid.

He took spare car keys from clients and even an electricity payment card from one customer as collateral. Constantine walked free from court with a suspended prison sentence.

Prosecutors at the Illegal Money Lending Team launched legal action under the Proceeds of Crime Act to identify and seize assets.

Constantine was hauled back to court.

Stuart Jessop, prosecuting, said it had been agreed that Constantine made £400,000 up until 2015.

But his assets, made up of cash in bank accounts, amounted to just £20,000. It is understood Constantine has no stake in property.

Financial investigators have spent two years looking for the cash, but it appears Constantine has simply spent it.

The court heard in May last year an example of a loan where a driver borrowed £3,000 and had to pay back £5,000 in interest. Drivers who had trouble getting regular finance typically had to repay £100 a week.

Constantine, of Higher Stert Terrace in Prince Rock, pleaded guilty to two counts of unlicensed money lending covering four years up to his arrest in May 2015.

Recorder Edward Burgess, presiding over the latest hearing, ordered him to pay the £20,000 within three months or face nine months in prison.

The England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) brought the case against Constantine after officers, working with Plymouth City Council Trading Standards and Devon and Cornwall Police, searched his home.

Tony Quigley, head of the England Illegal Money Lending Team, said after the case: “Today’s hearing sends out a clear message that loan sharks who are caught flouting the law will be prosecuted and stripped of their available assets.

"This sort of behaviour will not be tolerated in Plymouth and we will continue to work with the police and local authority to crack down on loan sharks.

“If you or someone you know has been the victim of a loan shark, please call the IMLT on 0300 555 2222 or visit www.stoploansharks.uk.”

Councillor Dave Downie, cabinet member for safer and stronger communities at Plymouth City Council, added: “Instead of resorting to loan sharks we recommend people to look to more ethical, low interest ways of borrowing and lending, such as the City of Plymouth Credit Union, or to access household goods through the Fair For You scheme.”

Nationally, Illegal Money Lending Teams have secured more than 380 prosecutions for illegal money lending and related activity, leading to nearly 328 years’ worth of custodial sentences. They have written off £72.5 million worth of illegal debt and helped over 27,000 people.

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 8:59 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:25 pm
Posts: 37029
Location: Wayneistan
yayy

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 9:24 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sun May 24, 2015 8:55 pm
Posts: 479
The trade must be sh!t in Plymouth if the drivers are that desperate.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sat Oct 14, 2017 9:30 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Tue Oct 21, 2003 7:25 pm
Posts: 37029
Location: Wayneistan
Midlife martyr wrote:
The trade must be sh!t in Plymouth if the drivers are that desperate.


what a thing to say......haha ;)

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 10:05 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:27 pm
Posts: 19638
Remind me what the interest rates are at Wonga or other such lenders?

_________________
Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 7:25 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Wed Sep 03, 2003 7:30 pm
Posts: 53921
Location: 1066 Country
Midlife martyr wrote:
The trade must be sh!t in Plymouth if the drivers are that desperate.

That's one of the problems with our trade, some drivers are desperate.

They buy a car cheap, and then it costs them money they haven't got to get fixed. Thus they go to money lenders like the above.

Happens down here all the time.

Borrow say £200 one month, pay back £250 next month and it works out at several 1000%. :sad:

_________________
IDFIMH


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Sun Oct 15, 2017 9:28 pm 
Offline

Joined: Sun May 24, 2015 8:55 pm
Posts: 479
It is certainly true that you need a decent car for this game, spending too little is a false economy as you soon find out when your cars in the garage every couple of weeks costing to get fixed and losing earnings, the same applies when you keep a car too long and get caught in the throwing good money after bad trap when things start going wrong.
It's hard advice to follow but the best time to get rid of your car is when it's running fine.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:34 am 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 8:15 pm
Posts: 9163
Midlife martyr wrote:
It is certainly true that you need a decent car for this game, spending too little is a false economy as you soon find out when your cars in the garage every couple of weeks costing to get fixed and losing earnings, the same applies when you keep a car too long and get caught in the throwing good money after bad trap when things start going wrong.
It's hard advice to follow but the best time to get rid of your car is when it's running fine.


Some cars run bad all their lives other run fine all their lives...And until it plays up you just don't know when that when is, Usually you can see the bigger problems coming before they actually arrive and that's when I tend to get rid.


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 3:48 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 8:26 pm
Posts: 8518
Some drivers need to keep out of the bookies

_________________
Justice for the 96. It has only taken 27 years...........repeat the same lies for 27 years and the truth sounds strange to people!


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 7:41 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sat Apr 01, 2006 11:47 pm
Posts: 19110
Location: Stamford Britains prettiest town till SKDC ruined it
well we all know our Trotsky is the intellectual equal of Cyprinidae :-#

_________________
Taxis Are Public Transport too

Join the campaign to get April fools jokes banned for 364 days a year !


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Mon Oct 16, 2017 10:17 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Sun Jan 28, 2007 8:58 pm
Posts: 3486
Location: Plymouth
Think that is the first time a post by me has been deleted.

Would the moderator care to let me know my offence?

_________________
Chris The Fish

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gdlyi5mc ... re=related


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 8:23 am 
Offline

Joined: Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:27 pm
Posts: 19638
Chris the Fish wrote:

Would the moderator care to let me know my offence?

Working in Plymouth?

_________________
Grandad,
To support my charity text MAYORWALK to 70085 to donate £5


Top
 Profile  
 
PostPosted: Tue Oct 17, 2017 2:00 pm 
Offline

Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2016 7:56 pm
Posts: 2466
trotskys twin wrote:
grandad wrote:
Chris the Fish wrote:

Would the moderator care to let me know my offence?

Working in Plymouth?



:badgrin: :badgrin: :badgrin: :badgrin: :badgrin: :badgrin: :badgrin: or being a pillock #-o #-o


Should that not have been a Pollack.


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 13 posts ] 

All times are UTC [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 124 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group