Shark shock shook me up

It amazes me that in the middle of this over-regulated, super-careful nanny state in which we live, it's still possible to get a 'doorstep loan',

.

In fact, in some parts, it's hard not to get one.

For those who don't know, I'm talking about the suited, booted, smooth-talking weekly visitor; the downmarket loan shark, keeping desperate housewives desperate up and down the country with 'little' loans on a regular basis, unbeknownst to husbands or partners. Fleecing the poorest of the poor . . . what a way to earn a living!

I'd always been aware of this industry, but had no idea just how parasitic it is until I met someone who's been trapped in the doorstep loan treadmill most of her adult life. She explained how these companies work, and the more she told me the more horrified I became that such flagrant abuse of the most vulnerable people is flourishing.

She told me she accepted a loan from the friendly home-loan man who first called on her, years ago, for £200. She admits she was naive: haven't we all been, at some point or another? The repayments were small, weekly and payable to Mr Smooth when he called - and he always called.

He never visited without stopping for a convivial cuppa . . . nice wallpaper . . . how's the kids? And, by hearing her news, week by week, he built up a shrewd picture of when she's likely to be short of cash.

When that loan was nearly paid, and - coincidentally - right in the middle of her latest financial crisis, he offered her another. Part of this would cover the remainder still owed on the old one. So, for a loan of £550, perhaps £290 would go straight back to Mr Smooth, and she would actually only get £260 cash out in her pocket. She'd pay it back, painfully slowly, with the interest rate ensuring that, for a loan of £550 she'd end up repaying £900. Don't forget, she only actually received £260.

And of course, Mr Smooth encourages her to add on a bit more whenever she's short, and before the loan's ever paid off, he'll offer her another. And she'll never get a decent sum out of it, because half of it goes straight back in his pocket to pay off the last one.

She told me she once called the loan company in a panic. She had several concurrent debts running which came to over £1,500. She told them she couldn't keep up with the various repayments and wanted to sort them out. Mr Smooth visited - probably terrified she was going to settle up and leave him without his shameful income. After scaring her to death with stories of what could happen to "people like her" and dazzling her with numbers, he left. But not before getting her to take out a "consolidating loan" for a huge amount to cover the debts with a paltry £200 cash thrown in as a sweetener.

There are estates all over Shropshire, full of housewives and single mums, turning over most of their weekly incomes to people like this, with the odd financial morsel thrown their way for the trouble.

The terrible twist to this sorry financial tale is that these methods only work on desperate

people, already struggling to buy food and nappies for their children. They work in secrecy and on people who are too poor to go elsewhere for help, those who have no financial power.

And with those legions of Mr Smooths out there, turning up on the doorstep week after week, financial power is something their victims are never likely to have, either.