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Crooks Get Busted

Two illegal loan sharks have been arrested and given R10,000 fines each for operating as unregistered credit providers.

Gotta Catch Them All

Recently, following up on tips from the public, police executed search and seizure warrants at two businesses where illegal loan sharks were preying on desperate consumers.

The arrests were made in Setlagole, in the North West Province.

The two men, Nengbiao Xue (aged 41) and Xiamei Chen (aged 47) had been giving out small, short term loans to desperate consumers and had been taking During the raids the police found a pile of SASSA cards, bank cards, ID books, and SA Post Office cards.

It's Illegal

It is illegal for anyone to run an unregistered cash loan businesses and act as a loan shark.

Those who want to loan out money for a fee or charge interest for money that they loan have to register as a credit provider with the National Credit Regulator and be captured on their Database. It also means they have to fill in reports and send stats to the NCR about their Business and are subject to monitoring from the NCR.

As per the National Credit Act, it is also illegal for any credit provider to ask for personal documents as collateral (such as ID Books, SASSA cards or bank cards).

Plea Deals and Big Fines

Since they were both caught red handed and with such a mountain of evidence it was clear these two were in serious trouble.

Both men opted for plea bargains with the state.

As a result, the court found both of them guilty of violating Section 133 of the National Credit Act, 2005 (Act No. 34 of 2005) and the handed down a R10,000 fine to each.

Report Them

If a credit provider (or illegal loan shark) ever asks for such documents they can be reported to the local police and to the NCR.