A “ruthless” loan shark who charged poor families interest rates as high as 2,437 per cent was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday.

John Kiely, 36, of Manchester, earned £2.9 million over a five-year period with the help of an army of enforcers who collected debts from families on Manchester housing estates. One of his victims has since been forced to move to a secret location because she feared for her life after agreeing to give evidence against him.

Judge Adrian Smith, jailing Kiely at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court for offences including blackmail and illegal money lending, said that he had “displayed a high degree of criminal sophistication”, preying on “vulnerable people who were unable to obtain credit elsewhere”.

Donna Ockerby, an auxiliary nurse, told the jury last month that she had borrowed £300 from “Johnny Boy” Kiely to pay for her wedding dress in January 2007 because she was “absolutely desperate”. He dispensed the money to her from a roll of £20 notes while sitting in his black Range Rover, complete with the personalised number plate “B0Y”.

Mrs Ockerby, 45, said that Kiely quickly became aggressive when she struggled to repay her debt after her working hours were reduced. On one occasion he arrived at her home in Openshaw, Manchester, unannounced and grabbed hold of her. On another, a concrete block was thrown at her window just hours after a debt collector called.

Kiely was convicted of two counts of blackmail for his actions towards her. He was also found guilty of one count of acquiring criminal property, two counts of concealing, disguising, converting or transferring criminal property and two counts of unlawfully failing to give notice of a change in circumstances. He also admitted, at an earlier hearing, five counts of illegal money lending.

The sentences handed down for the various offences reached a total of five years.

Ben Mills, for the prosecution, said that Kiely started working as a loan shark in October 2003. In 2005, he established an unlicensed moneylending company, Project Finance UK, before setting up a licensed company, Millennium Finance, last year. However, Mr Mills said that Kiely had continued to collect money from his unlicensed loans and had “recycled” £342,300 through Millennium Finance. He was wealthy enough to pay cash for a £868,650 mock-Tudor, seven-bedroom house, complete with turret, in Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire.

At the time of his arrest in October last year, he had an estimated £800,000 in outstanding loans spread between 900 clients.

Judge Smith said that Kiely had bypassed the financial regulatory system designed to safeguard his 1,200 borrowers. “Your victims — because that is what they were — were vulnerable people who were unable to obtain credit elsewhere,” he said.

Kiely failed to provide his borrowers with paperwork for loans and charged “punitive rates of interest” and “arbitrary penalties” to customers who fell behind with repayments. “I’m satisfied that you dealt with Donna Ockerby on those two occasions in a chilling, sinister and deliberately menacing way,” the judge said.

Mrs Ockerby said yesterday that Kiely “was capable of anything” and warned other people, particularly those affected by the economic downturn, to think twice before turning to loan sharks. “As soon as you have got that money in your hand, then that is that. It is the start of it all and it will never end.”

Tony Quigley, of the Trading Standards North West illegal money lending team, urged people in financial difficulty to approach credit unions rather than loan sharks.

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