The fatcat bosses behind the sky-high credit companies who rip off hard-up families
Bosses at four firms raking in around £1bn a year charging sky-high interest rates are living lives of luxury beyond their customers' wildest dreams
THESE are the fatcat bosses living lives of luxury while their four firms rake in almost £1billion-a-year charging sky-high interest rates.
The Sun's Stop The Credit Rip-Off campaign is calling on firms to put a cap on their credit terms so no-one ever pays more than double the amount they're lent.
It comes as more than 7million households have turned to high-cost credit such as doorstep lenders or rent-to-own firms.
Brighthouse, Provident PLC, Morses Club and Perfect Home are among the companies we've identified whose customers have been hit with crippling repayments.
Meanwhile, their millionaire bosses have made fortunes off the back of people's desperation and are enjoying lavish lifestyles beyond their customers' wildest dreams.
Here are the men who have made fortunes out of the struggles of everyday families.
It's time to Stop the Credit Rip-off.
Peter Crook, The ex-Provident Kingpin
Provident PLC is the biggest of the four firms, generating more than £500m-a-year in revenue.
Its latest accounts show it has more than 800,000 customers and it managed to pay out £45m to its shareholders in 2016/17.
Among those to benefit was the now former CEO Peter Crook who took home a whopping £6.3m in pay - including a £755,000 salary, £876,000 bonus and £4.36m in share awards.
Crook amassed £40m over ten years before quitting his lucrative post in August last year at the Bradford-based firm following a period of "substantial under-performance" which saw huge profits turn to losses.
The former 54 year-old CEO has since been licking his wounds in the comfort of his huge £2m-plus 43-acre estate in Northamptonshire, which he bought in 2011 with his second wife Rachel.
While the hard-up families he profited from can barely afford to pay their rent, his rural pile boasts a helicopter pad, tennis court, champagne bar and games room (with full-size snooker table, of course) and a 23ft swimming pool with sauna and massage area.
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The grand, modern home also boasts six large bedrooms, a 30ft dressing room, five bathrooms, four gigantic reception rooms.
It also has a huge equestrian centre where Mrs Crook, 52, a former City lawyer, spends much of her time raising and training showjumping horses for events.
The couple each have two children from previous marriages and all four children have attended a fancy private school where fees are £15,000 a year.
Formerly a managing director of Barclaycard, Mr Crook met the current Mrs Crook when she worked as a corporate lawyer for the credit card firm in the mid-2000s.
Crook and his first wife Laureen, whom he married in 1991, used to live in a large six-bedroom house with their two young children in the nearby upmarket village of Great Houghton.
When they split up, Crook and Rachel moved into a secluded £1.2 million barn conversion in another exclusive location in the country - where he reportedly had a yellow Lamborghini, BMW and Bentley parked in the drive.
Meanwhile, Finance Director Andrew Fisher, 60, who spent 15 years as a partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers and 11 years at Premier Farnell before accepting the job at Provident Financial, has previously boasted about what he calls his "third career", claiming "he never looked back".
But then he has little reason to look back when his Provident career has bagged him a £4.2m package including a £520,000 salary and £520,000 bonus and afforded him the luxury of a modern £1.3m home in West Yorkshire.
How Fat Is The Cat?
- Salary: £755k
- Total package: £6.3m
- Home: £2.2m country mansion
Andy Thomson, Morses Club Money Man
Morses Club is Britain's second-biggest doorstep lender and yet another company lining the pockets of its executives by hitting the finances of this country’s poorest and most hard up.
Having capitalised on Provident's woes to gain a nine per cent boost in customers in 2016/17, it now has 216,000 customers who owe the firm more than £61million, largely recruited through its network of 600 staff and 1,800 "self-employed agents".
Morses Club rakes in £100m-a-year in revenue and posted a £17m profit for the year and among the satisfied shareholders are company bigwigs Andy Thomson, Chief Financial Officer, and Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer, both of whom have benefited enormously from the dire financial straits of others.
56 year-old Mr Thomson earned himself a £360,000-plus package that included a £210,000 salary and £157,000 share award.
He has justified the company’s extortionate interest rates by saying he feels the business provides a "vital and irreplaceable service to customers".
And while these customers struggle to heat and light their homes, Mr Thompson lives in an £815,000 new-build home in a prosperous town in Berks, where residents are in the top 5 per cent of earners in the country.
Mr Smith, the Chief Executive Officer, took home and annual salary of £385,000 a year.
How Fat Is The Cat?
- Salary: £210k
- Share award: £157k
- Home: £815k luxury new-build
Julian Mash, Brighthouse Bigwig
While rent-to-buy store BrightHouse was charging its customers up to five times the retail price for a fridge or washing machine, its multi-millionaire boss Julian Mash was flogging his London mansion for £53m.
He had kitted out the lavish pad - the most expensive home sold in Britain in 2016 - with a pool, squash court, wine cellar and cinema before the sale, thanks to the business making £185m in operating profits since it was taken over by mega-rich Julian Mash's Vision Capital group in 2007.
The financial expert and his barrister wife are now understood to live in a lavish Grade II-listed farmhouse in the West Country, a far cry from the homes of the store’s cash-poor customers attempting to scrabble together their weekly payments.
The company’s Chief Financial Officer Alex Maby, 43, is also living it up in a home estimated to be worth more than £3million by Zoopla.
And its privately educated Chairman Henry Staunton, 69, has a private tennis court at his country home and appeared in The Times Power 100 list in 2006.
Company records show that more than £2.8million was paid to directors and “key management” figures in 2017 with the highest paid director pocketing £864,000.
How Fat Is The Cat?
- Founder of Vision Capital, which is worth an estimated £1.3bn
- Firm took over Brighthouse in 2007 and has enjoyed profits of £185m
- Sold London home for £53.5m in 2016
Mike Sweetland, Perfect Home Head Honcho
Rent-to-own store Perfect Home posted massive revenues of £63m, thanks to its 114,000 customers, many with poor credit histories, who owe more than £32m.
The Financial Conduct Authority recently announced the firm would be writing off £2.1m of debt owed by 37,000 customers after issuing loans customers couldn't afford and imposing unfair charges.
Meanwhile, its four directors received £713,000 between them in salary last year.
Chief Executive Mike Sweetland - who apologised and said he will personally write to customers - lives in a swanky £750,000 detached home in a picturesque market town in West Yorkshire.
Located in the heart of Yorkshire’s ‘golden triangle’ and home to some of the UK’s richest people and is likely to be unconcerned with the piffling £2.1m write off.
Founder and Commercial Director Mike Cooper - holed up in his £1.8m six-bedroom house in Reading, Berkshire – may also give it little pause for thought.
But then they aren’t counting their pennies like their cash-strapped customers.
How Fat Is The Cat?
- Salary: Four directors received £713,000 between them
- Home: Chief exec has £750k detached property in leafy Yorkshire village
- Company was recently told to repay £2.1m to exploited customers
Why we want to Stop The Credit Rip-Off
WE never want you to pay more than double the amount you've borrowed - whether it's for a new sofa or a loan to help pay your bills.
That's why The Sun has launched a campaign calling for a cap on the total cost of rent-to-own loans and doorstep lending at double the original price or loan amount.
A similar cap was introduced for payday loans in 2015 and since then the number of people struggling with unmanageable debts to those lenders has more than halved, according to Citizens Advice.
People on the lowest incomes, living in the poorest places, are paying a poverty premium - up to 7 million people have resorted to high-cost credit, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.
People whose wages or benefits don't stretch far enough need to borrow from rent-to-own or doorstep lenders to help pay for things such as an unexpected bill or to furnish their homes.
These come with exorbitant rates of interest - more than 1,500 per cent in some cases of doorstep lending.
It is scandalous that one mum who borrowed cash to help keep a roof over her family's head and ended up paying back over THREE times the original amount.
It's time to stop the credit rip-off.
Here's what we demand:
Rent-to-own
- Cap on all repayable costs at double the item list prices (including fees, add-ons and interest)
- Ban on incentives for all sales staff
- Ban on discounts for existing customers to tempt them into more credit
- Companies to publish example interest rates and costs on all payment options
Doorstep lending
- Cap at double the original amount borrowed
- Stricter affordability checks
- Ban on discounts for existing customers to tempt them into more credit
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