'Wicked' loan shark guilty of rape

My Account
Logout

Create an Evening Standard Account

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Welcome! Sign in here

Use your social network

Save time by using your existing account to sign in to Evening Standard

We'll never share your information or post anything to your account without your permission

Forgot your password ?

Registration

* indicates fields that are mandatory

Email *

Password *

Confirm Password *

First name *

Surname *

Postcode *

Country *

Mobile phone number

Username *

Gender *

Year of birth *

When you sign up...

You will have access to all our online competitions, discounted offers and can post comments on our site.

You will also receive The Weekender newsletter sent every Thursday - it’s full of fantastic offers and ideas for the weekend. You can update your email preferences in your account page when you log in.

Other newsletters and emails

Homes & Property Newsletter - Yes I want to receive the weekly email with all the latest news on property in the capital

Occasionally we would also like to send you relevant emails detailing specific offers either from ourselves or carefully selected partners. If you would prefer not to receive these then please tick the appropriate boxes below. We will never pass on your details.

I do not want to receive additional offers and information from the Evening Standard

I do not want to receive additional offers and information sent by Evening Standard on behalf of carefully selected partners

Terms and Conditions

* I have read, understood and agree to be bound by the terms and conditions of Evening Standard

Registration

Mail Sent for Registration Confirmation.

A confirmation email has been sent. Please activate your account by clicking on the activation link sent in your mail box.

Paul Nicholson, 39, squeezed hundreds of thousands of pounds from the vulnerable, even telling one distraught debtor: "Your priority is to pay me, not feed your kids."

The former bouncer, who has convictions for possessing a stun gun and supplying steroids, forced one woman who owed him money to perform oral sex. Detectives later found pictures of her half-naked on his mobile phone.

While his victims were scraping together money to satisfy his 125% interest rates, Nicholson's four-year reign of terror netted him a Land Rover, a Porsche Carrera and a move from his £170,000 home to a palatial house worth more than £1 million next to a golf course. Between June 2007 and last March he collected £648,000.

A Warrington Crown Court jury of five men and six women convicted him of rape, 12 counts of blackmail, lying about his criminal record, operating without a licence, acquiring criminal property and two counts of assault. He was cleared of one blackmail charge.

When police searched his lavish home on Golf Course Road, Delamere, Cheshire, they found stacks of loan records, two horses, £26,000 in cash kept in boxes and a pair of tights, and a knuckle-duster in his Porsche.

Hearing the verdicts, powerfully-built Nicholson jumped up, shook the reinforced glass and bellowed at the jury: "You have made a mistake and f****** ruined our lives."

His girlfriend, mother-of-one Tracey Rogers, 38, helped run his "wicked" empire from their home and she was convicted of blackmail, operating without a licence and acquiring criminal property.

The couple, who targeted more than 800 poor people across Widnes and Runcorn in Cheshire, will both be sentenced at Warrington Crown Court on March 20.