Borrowers 'enslaved' by loan companies - adviser

An Auckland budgeting adviser says action is needed to protect vulnerable people who are becoming "enslaved" to finance companies. This after two companies, owned by disgraced businessman Allan Hawkins and his son Wayne, were this week fined $720,000 for what a judge described as "cynical" and "deliberate" offending. Over six years the loan companies continually added costs and interests to loans and then illegally repossessed customers' belongings. Iain Davies is a budgeting adviser with Care Waitakere Trust.