Notorious football hooligan jailed after accidentally tipping off police he was loan shark
Former leader of Manchester City Guvnors Mickey Francis also filmed himself setting up cannabis farm
THE former leader of Manchester City’s hooligan 'firm' has been jailed after accidentally leting slip to cops he was a dodgy loan shark.
Hardman Mickey Francis wrote about his days on the terraces in his notorious book ‘Guvnors’ published back in 1997.
Now the former pub landlord, security boss and sometime wrestler has been jailed for four-and-a-half years after accidentally revealing his criminal activities to police.
Back in 2014, an officer was called to a domestic at Francis’ home at Manchester Road, Heywood, and noted a large amount of notebooks piled by the door which were branded with the name ‘Piggybank Loans’.
The discovery sparked an investigation which revealed Francis was illegally lending money to 400 people, .
Interest was charged at a flat 60 per cent, and late payers were hit with additional fees of £40 or £80.
The average value of a loan was £260, and it’s believed he loaned out around £200,000 between 2013 and 2015, earning £125,000 in interest and fees.
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The enterprise was based at the pub Francis ran - Eastlands Bar - a stone’s throw from the Ethiad stadium, as well as Francis’ home. He employed debtors as collectors and administrators.
Despite being raided in May 2015 by police, Francis continued the business, making collections from over 100 people and issuing 24 new loans in the weeks after.
Francis was also growing £40,000 of cannabis in an outhouse at his home, and had another £4,000 worth already harvested when his home was searched.
He incriminated himself further because his CCTV system recorded him setting up the farm.
Cash totalling £15,000 was found in a shoebox in his sauna.
Francis later admitted charges of illegal money lending, money laundering, production of cannabis, and abstracting electricity. His last conviction was for violent disorder in 1998.
Oliver Jarvis, defending, said Francis had employed ‘no threats, violence or intimidation’.
He added: “His notoriety is nothing to do with his antecedent record, his notoriety is because many years ago he wrote a book about Manchester City Football Club.
“There’s nothing intimidating about this at all, these are are local people who have gone to him for a loan. Because it’s illegal it must take on sinister overtones, but it must be distinguished from so many other cases where there are threats.
"He’s 56, it’s going to be hard time served. He’s got eight children. Everything is lost, he’s a bankrupt, he’s got nothing.”
Sentencing, Recorder Ciaran Rankin told Francis he had ‘preyed on the vulnerable’, adding: “You are an intimidating man, the type of man people would not wish to get on the wrong side of.”
Speaking after the case, Cath Williams, of the Illegal Moneylending Team, said Francis’ efforts to make his illegal enterprise look professional had given investigators key evidence.
“When you employ collectors and have branded paperwork it means people are less likely to report you because they might not necessarily know it’s not a legitimate enterprise”, she said.