County Court
Tuesday.—Before his Honour Judge Snagge

Louisa Pouchin, Leicester, v. Joseph Crick, Desborough

Claim for £42 7s. 6d. on a promissory note.

—Mr. E. P. Toller represented the plaintiff, who was not present, but whose husband, a manager to the Alliance Loan Co., appeared.

—The money was lent privately, and not in connection with the loan company.

—Defendant said he had been paying interest at the rate of £5 a month, and put in notes with a view to prove it.

—It was denied by the husband of the plaintiff.

—Defendant said he had borrowed at least £1,000 from the company.

—The manager said he had had at least £2,000, and that he owed the company money, but never paid, and was grossly insulting to the manager when he called upon him.

—It was not made particularly clear as to what amount the defendant had had from the office, and what he had paid back.

—The Judge said that if people were foolish enough to get into such messes, and to fall into the clutches of money lenders, the only thing to be done was for justices to expose the amount of interest, and thus let people see what they were paying. The money-lenders were protected by the law, and if a man promised to pay them 60 or 100 per cent., there was no reason why they should not have it. But it was necessary the public should see what they were paying.

—Ultimately an order was made on the defendant to pay £4 a month. The Judge, in handing over to the defendant the receipts, &c., that he had had from the firm, told him to give them to his son, as a warning of never to enter the parlour of a money-lender.

 Northampton Mercury, Friday 09 October 1891