NEW LIGHT ON MONEYLENDERS.

Hokitika Guardian, 8 April 1926, Page 1

NEW LIGHT ON MONEYLENDERS.

LONDON, Jau. 14. Now evidence against money-lenders is given in “The Borrowers’ Book on Money-lending” (published by the Anti-Money-lending Associtkm. .The book is written by Air 11. H. Kelsey, a solicitor with an extensive experience of wiles of these harpies. Air Kelsey says: “Money-lenders do not pay their solicitors when suing borrowers. The business is so profitable for tho solicitor that ho has to get his costs out of the borrower; thus, there is a strong alliance, bordering on a partnership, between solicitor and money-lender. In two months’ time from the commencement of legal proceedings by the money-lenders’ solicitor he is able to run up a bill against the borrower of £100.” Under tho Money-lenders Act of 1900 the money-lender, even if his interest is held to he harsh and unconscionable and is cut down by the court, has tho costs of his action paid by the borrower, unless,the latter has sufficient- money to tender or pay into court before the action, with a reasonable amount of interest. £2lO FOR -£IOO. A case is cited in which the borrower obtains a loan of £IOO and agrees to pay back £l5O in three months. He cannot do so, and the money-lender issues a writ for £l5O. The. judge decides that the rate of interest is harsh and knocks off £2O, so that the moneylender obtains judgment for £l3O and his costs. These amount to £SO. Costs of the borrower’s own solicitor are £3O, so that, in the end the borrower has to pay £2lO and is worse off than he would have been if he had never contested the case. ' The author suggests an amendment to the Money-lenders Bill which has roeen tip been before Parliament providing that in cases where the rate of interest is cut down by the court the money-lender shall be obliged to pay his own and the borrower’s legal costs in the action. A money-lenders’ solicitor, when business is good from his point of view, will. Mr Kelsey says, issue 50 writs a week. Costs of about £5 15s are allowed on each writ, so that the work, of a money-lender in a large way of business may be worth £3.000 a year to a. solicitor. A deadly weapon in the hands of the money-lender is the subpoena. His solicitors threaten to subpoena the borrowers father or employer, not with, any real intention of calling them as witnesses hub as a threat of publicity which he hopes will compel the borrower to pay. The author points mil that- in some cases the money-lenders use the powerful weapon of blackmail. In one instance, where tho borrower was a prominent local solicitor, _ the lender issued a bankruptcy notice in the court where tho solicitor practised, hating ascertained that a large sum of money belonging to the debtor’s client had been recently paid into his account. As tho money-lender anticipated, the solicitor made use of this money to elfcct tho withdrawal of tho bankruptcy notice, which meant ruin to him, and is now in prison for embezzlement.