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BRITAIN’s oldest loan shark gave seven victims £120,000 over the last 20 years, a court has heard – warning one “You know I can find you”.

Great-gran Tabitha Richardson, 83, has been ordered to pay back £173,000 after charging customers 40 per cent interest on loans.

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Cops described the gangster granny as “threatening and menacing”.

She could now end up in prison if she fails to pay the whopping cash sum within three months.

Richardson, from Newport in south Wales, was handed a suspended sentence last August after admitting her illegal loan shark business.

At the time, a police spokesperson said: “Loan sharks are often stereotypically portrayed as hard men wielding baseball bats.

“But Tabitha Richardson is female and despite her age, was menacing to her victims as well.

“This 83-year-old woman preyed on vulnerable people to extort money from them through illegal lending.

“She threatened them when they did not pay their debt, often in the full knowledge that her victims were unable to pay.”

A court heard that when one victim missed payments for a £31,000 loan, Richardson said: “Just ring me, you know I can find you.”

She added: “You have got to speak to me and let me know what’s going on before I come looking for you.”

Richardson texted another female victim: “I don’t want to come and look for you but your not leaving me any other thing to do.

“Let’s not fall out, we have known each other for a long time.”

The female victim had borrowed £46,300 from the loan shark – and paid back £18,600 in interest.

Cops found a safe with more than £6,000 cash at Richardson’s home in Newport even though she claimed she had lost the keys.

A Proceeds of Crime hearing was told she made £173,195.92 and must repay the money within three months or face a 19-month jail term.

Six of the loan shark’s victims will pocket a combined £35,285 in compensation after borrowing a total of £126,000.

LOAN WOLF

Richardson used to work for a legal loans company before her individual money lending licence expired in 2003.

In August 2022, a search was carried out of her home by officers who found a large number of financial documents and loan books.

A safe was found in her garage which she said only contained property deeds and that she had lost the keys.

A locksmith was called and £6,500 cash was found inside along with bank books and financial records.

The action brought by WIMLU involved seven victims who had borrowed a total of £126,020.

Richardson accepted that she had made the loans without carrying out proper affordability tests.

She pleaded guilty to engaging in activity requiring a licence when not a licensee.

The great-gran also admitted money-laundering and carrying on a regulated activity when not an authorised or exempt person.

Andrew Kendal, mitigating, said her primary reason for doing so was to “help” the people she was lending to.

The barrister said Richardson wished to apologise to her victims for causing them stress.

‘MENACING’

Judge Mr Recorder Ben Blakemore told Richardson that the interest rates she was charging were extortionate.

He added that Richardson had been exploiting people for her own profit.

Recorder Blakemore told Richardson she had avoided an immediate custodial sentence “by a whisker” partly due to her age.

He said she had “ran roughshod” over regulations and legislation to protect borrowers.

The judge described Richardson’s messages to her victims as “threatening and menacing to a degree”.

He added: “Your interest charges kept them in a “cycle of debt” and were exploiting them for profit.

“You told probation you were doing people a favour and helping them out and were not out to make profit for yourself.”

The judge said Richardson’s background in financial services would have made her away of legal protections for loan customers.

“You rode roughshod over those protections,” he told her.

Richardson was sentenced to two years in prison, suspended for two years, at Cardiff Crown Court.