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(Picture: Getty Images)Two women including an NHS hospital matron have been sentenced for operating a £4 million loan shark operation from their Tooting home.
Luz Guerra Villar, 65, and Leticia Manipol, 69, loaned vast sums of cash to fellow members of the Filipino community across south London, using Facebook, texts, and WhatsApp messages to enforce repayment with high rates of interest add on top.
When officers from the England Illegal Money Lending Team (IMLT) went to question the women at their home inTooting, Villar – a long-time NHS matron – admitted “I do lend money”.
She kept a ledger of payments and loans in the wardrobe, and officers seized electronic devices which revealed the scale of the illicit operation.
Villar has issued loans totalling £2,741,865 between July 2003 and October 2019, and received £2,841,233 in repayments over the same period.
Manipol – who was out of the country at the time of the raid in October 2019 but was arrested later at Gatwick Airport - had issued £1,462,502 in loans and received £1,613,267 in repayments between 2008 and 2019.
Analysis of Villar’s phone revealed a pattern of loaning out money, negotiating on repayment plans, penalties for missed payments, and messages from clients apologising for non-payment.
In one message, she told a client: “I can give you £10K this week and 10K next week, because if I will give it all in one go, I might be questioned.”
Messages and chatlogs from Manipol’s phone included her telling a victim that she must act as guarantor on a friend’s unpaid loan.
“What is your friends name?”, she wrote. “You will have to act as her guarantor. Meaning if she can’t pay her loan, you will be the one to pay her loan.”
At Kingston Crown Court last Friday, Villar was handed an 18-month suspended prison sentence with 220 hours of community service, and Manipol was given a 15-month suspended prison sentence with 200 hours of community service.
Both women, who share the home in Tooting, had pleaded guilty to unlawful money lending and money laundering, and now face proceeds of crime action to recover money taken from the victims.
“Illegal money lenders are a scourge on society, taking advantage of people in desperate situations”, said Tony Quigley, Head of the England IMLT.
“The defendants in this case raked in millions of pounds from their illegal activity and targeted financially vulnerable victims in the Filipino community. I hope this sentence reflects the seriousness of this offending.
“These unscrupulous lenders often present themselves as a community service or as a friend to build trust but can quickly turn nasty if repayments are not met. Vulnerable borrowers are often unaware of the interest being charged on the loans and the dangers that illegal lenders pose.
“Perpetrators need to realise that this kind of activity will not be tolerated and by working with our partners we will do everything in our power to ensure those involved are brought to justice.”
