Texan Tycoon Behind the Company Charging Hard-up Britons 2,300% Interest

With his huge country pile and millions in the bank, no wonder Daniel Feehan is looking smug. The 59-year-old Texan's loans company is behind a new hardhitting TV ad campaign which promises struggling families instant cash - but then charges them more than 2,300 per cent interest. The ad - which features a woman shopping on the internet for a loan - provoked more than 100 complaints over Christmas about the firm's eye-watering APR, but has seen profits soar for QuickQuid.

Feehan's US firm, which owns the biggest pawn shop empire in the world, last year enjoyed earnings of £625million. Quick-Quid offers so-called payday loans - short-term unsecured loans to be paid back when customers' wages go in the bank - and charge a typical 2,356 per cent APR. Its success has ensured a comfortable lifestyle for Feehan, who lives in a million-dollar mansion in an exclusive enclave of Fort Worth, Texas, and picks up a salary of £440,000 as chief executive of CashAmerica, the largest payday lender in the US and QuickQuid's parent firm.

Feehan once boasted: "The learning here is to keep your eyes, ears and heart open to the many opportunities that will undoubtedly come your way. Achieving great things invariably requires risks." QuickQuid extended its online business into the UK two years ago. Payday loans - common in the US - have been blamed for exacerbating the US's housing and economic crisis. They offer instant decisions on short-term loans of up to £1,500 over 30 days and money in the bank within hours. Feehan's is not the only company benefitting from the recession. Wonga.com charges a typical 2,689 per cent APR on loans.

By last June, the firm was boasting it had provided more than 100,000 cash advances. And its directors are unlikely to have to call on its services any time soon. Founder Errol Damelin, 40, a former investment banker, and Jonty Hurwitz, 40, live in huge houses in Britain. Damon Gibbons, of the Debt on Our Doorstep group, called on the Government to put a cap on the "astronomical" rates. He said: "The presence of the industry in the UK is an absolute disgrace." Former Trade Minister and MP Ian McCartney also called on the Government to clamp down. He said: "We must take tough action across all these areas to ban these sky-high interest rates."

Source: mirror.co.uk