'Del Boy' loan shark who targeted more than 100 victims is jailed

A notorious loan shark, nicknamed Del Boy by ripped-off customers, and who charged ‘extortionate’ interest rates, has been jailed for three years.

Robert Sparey, who targeted more than 100 victims in one of Wales’s poorest communities, boasted about how much money he had which he kept in biscuit tins and in his fridge, and which he called his safe.

Sparey also bought himself an £18,000 caravan and two Rolex watches worth £3,000.

The 54-year-old, who illegally lent money over a 20-year period while claiming benefits, including disability benefits, had pleaded guilty to a series of charges at an earlier hearing.

On Friday at Cardiff Crown Court he was sentenced to three years and six months for the offences.

Judge Eleri Rees said Sparey had offered ‘at least a quarter of a millions pounds worth of loans at very high, if not extortionate interest’.

‘We have heard a catalogue of misery brought by your money lending,’ she said.

‘You yourself describe yourself as a loan shark to one of these witnesses.

‘Not only were you preying on some of the most vulnerable and poor people in the community, often desperate, and finding themselves tied into indebtedness over long periods of time to yourself, (it was) accompanied in some cases by threats and intimidation.’

Sparey was arrested in January this year.

Tim Evans, prosecuting for the Unit, said investigators found repayments books in Sparey’s home in Caerphilly as well as more than £20,000 cash and counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes.

He said the repayments books, which covered the last two to three years, showed the total loans to be repaid was £264,405 with interest – or profit for Sparey – of £61,839.

Mr Evans said 116 individual borrowers were identified and 23 of those gave witness statements, describing how Sparey would charge £35 interest on every £100 lent, often expecting the money to be repaid in a short period of time.

He said one loan of £350 attracted interest of £125 despite being ‘repaid within two days’.

A number of witnesses said Sparey had collected payments from them after his January arrest, the court heard.

Of people he lent money to on a caravan site, Mr Evans said: ‘The defendant’s nickname on the caravan site was Del Boy and he used to brag to people on the caravan site he could get them anything they wanted.’

The court heard Sparey also threatened some of his clients that he would send ‘heavy people’ to enforce their debts, though these threats were not carried out.

Sparey, of Y Cilgant, Caerphilly, admitted counts of illegal money lending and carrying out unregulated money lending.

He pleaded guilty to possession of criminal property and to an offence under the Trade Marks Act – both of which related to his sale of counterfeit tobacco and cigarettes.

Sparey also admitted perverting the course of justice between January 25 and May 30 this year by trying to persuade five witnesses not to give evidence against him.

Edward Mitchard, defending Sparey, said a number of the prosecution witnesses described him as a ‘very nice man’ and a ‘good neighbour’.

Mr Sparey fell into usury when he received approximately £14,000 from his mother about 14 years ago,’ he said, adding that the lending then ‘escalated’.

He added: ‘He is profiting but he is also helping people; there are references within many of the statements from the prosecution that short-term loans would be without any interest at all.’
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