A LOAN shark has been ordered to pay back £750,000 after being convicted of illegal money lending charges.

John Radford, of Park Road in Great Sankey, was ordered to pay back the hefty sum to the courts after a jury found him guilty in 2013 of money lending and money laundering offences.

Radford was convicted after a 12 day trial of operating a money lending service without a licence, running a money lending business without notifying a change of name and possession of money taken from illegal money lending.

He was also found guilty of possessing an illegal firearm and ammunition.

Police officers and England Illegal Money Lending team led a search of Radford's large detached home where they found a loaded revolver gun and a quantity of ammunition.

A number of other weapons including machetes, knuckle dusters and red pepper spray were found during the warrant in March 2012. In addition more than £17,000 was seized from safes in his home.

Radford had started his business legally but failed to inform the Office for Fair Trading he had changed the business name in 2007.

From October 2010 to March 2012 he traded without any licence at all.

The loan shark was issuing loans of hundreds of thousands of pounds in cash - charging £10 a day in repayment fees

In one deal Radford is said to have collected £318,000 after loaning out £168,660. 

He was handed a two and a half year sentence by a judge who described him 'as slippery as an eel'.

He was jailed alongside Paul Holman, from Knowsley, who was aged 35 at the time, and Sindy Hope, who was aged 50 at the time, from Runcorn who were both handed 10 months each for their role in the business 

But, as Radford was already serving an eight year sentence for firearms offences, he was told he must complete the sentence once he had finished serving the first.

Following his conviction, the Cheshire Police Economic Crime Unit began a proceeds of crime confiscation investigation.

The judge ordered the confiscation order against the 59-year-old yesterday, Wednesday, at Chester Crown Court.

Temporary detective inspector Karen Jaundrill, of the Economic Crime Unit, said: “At the conclusion of the investigation the court accepted that Radford had benefited financially from his criminal enterprise to the sum of £750,000.

"Radford was subsequently ordered to repay this amount within three months or face a further four years in prison.

“I hope that this sends a strong message to any criminals in Cheshire that crime does not pay and offer reassurance to the residents of Cheshire that we take this type of criminality extremely seriously.”