A loan shark and former nurse who made more than £2million while ripping off vulnerable debtors has been jailed for three and a half years after a landmark case.
Dharam Gopee, 64, from Westcliff-on-Sea, Essex, bought the homes of 'desperate and uneducated' people if they failed to repay their debts of a few thousand pounds.
Gopee was an unlicensed consumer-credit lender and his conviction for acting as an illegal lender is the first of its kind by the Financial Conduct Authority. He lost his licence to operate in 2012 but continued to do trade through a complex network of 20 companies.
Many of those who sought his services had mortgages on their homes and Gopee took out a security against their properties.
The home owners who failed to pay up would sell their home to him at well below the market value.
He took over 200 victims to court and took possession of 100 homes.
Gopee denied but was convicted of two charges of engaging in activities for which a licence is required, under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and three of carrying out a regulated activity in the UK under Financial Markets and Services Act 2000.
The charges dated from between 17 August 2012 and 16 December 2016. He was sentenced to three and half years in prison, on top of a 15 month sentence he is currently serving for contempt of court in October 2017.
