Loan shark holds Filipina nurse’s family to ransom

Dubai: A loan shark has threatened the family of a Dubai-based Filipina nurse after an attempt to confiscate her Emirates ID, ATM card and passport failed. The threat came despite the nurse having paid an amount equal to the principal sum of a year-old loan.

The nurse, Jemma Sanchez, 39, has been working for a Jebel Ali hospital for seven years.

Her father died in November 2011 after a massive stroke, leaving her family with a huge hospital bill. Last year it was her ailing mother’s turn to be hospitalised following a heart attack. Jemma’s dire situation pushed her into the hands of a black market lender referred to by a friend.

Her loan breakdown is as follows: she borrowed Dh4,600 on June 2, 2012; Dh10,000 on June 3; Dh15,000 on June 10; Dh24,000 on June 12 and Dh5,000 on June 16. Most of that money went to her mother’s hospitalisation. The lender charged 15 per cent per month.

By July, she was already over-leveraged, paying Dh7,710 per month for interest alone – Dh1,500 more than her monthly salary. She borrowed another Dh30,000 in September (with a monthly interest payment of Dh4,500) – hoping to clear her previous loans. Altogether, she had borrowed a total of Dh88,600 from the underground lender – whose collector is also a Filipina.

The loan was guaranteed by six signed and undated blank cheques.

Jemma is a poster girl of thousands of victims of loan sharks in the UAE, a number that keeps on growing as cash-strapped people fall into the hands of the black-hat creditors. She got no receipts for payments made.

“I just kept paying each month, without fail, until the end of January 2013.”

In February, she realised her folly and told the loan shark she would stop paying unless the interest rate is reduced.

By then, she had already paid Dh91,490 (including Dh17,000 her aunt sent to her) out of the Dh88,600 she originally borrowed.

The loan shark told Jemma she still owed another Dh99,200 – 115 per cent more than the principal in less than a year. Things turned ugly as the loan shark had already sent “recovery” agents who took the title deed of Jemma’s family property as collateral back in the Philippines.

“They hold my blank cheques. They threaten to report me to authorities all the time or to tell my employers about my situation. I’m not running away from my responsibility, but I can’t stand the mental torture and the high rates.”

Like Jemma, most victims have borrowed money during a personal crisis, but ended up getting trapped in a vicious cycle of unending payments.

In March, Lt. Colonel Awadh Saleh Al Kindi, Editor-in-Chief of 999, the official English monthly of the UAE Ministry of Interior, told victims of loan mafias to come out in the open and seek redress from UAE authorities.

Jemma, however, fears any such move would complicate her life and endanger that of her family.