SENIOR church and political figures have criticised Blackburn’s ‘Cash Store’ for giving out 20 pence pieces with a flyer advertising quick high-interest loans as a ‘marketing ploy’.

MPs Jack Straw and Graham Jones, borough council leader Kate Hollern and cathedral cleric Andrew Hindley all condemned the hand-out as a means of luring hard-up residents into debt.

The coin is attached to a business card and flyer with The Cash Store’ address in Railway Road and phone number.

They were being handed out last week on the Boulevard opposite the cathedral and the bus station.

The flyer promises short-term loans of up to £800 with ‘No fuss, just quick decisions’ and said that cheques could be cashed at an interest rate of just 2.9 per cent with smaller print saying there is an additional charge of £3.50 for cheque handling.

It says the annual interest rate for loans is 612.3 per cent APR.

Canon Hindley, a senior clergyman at Blackburn cathedral a few hundred yards from The Cash Store, said: “These shops lend to people who cannot afford the exorbitant rates of interest they will be charged, “I cannot condone this sort of marketing ploy which just draws people into a spiral of debt and poverty.

“It is something I believe should be made unlawful.”

Coun Hollern said: “This is an absolutely disgraceful marketing ploy. They are preying on people who cannot afford their interest rates.

“To offer people 20 pence pieces to lure them into their shop is plumbing new depths.”

Blackburn MP Mr Straw said: “I think this kind of marketing is in bad taste.

“This is a poor attempt to persuade people who cannot afford to pay back loans through their door. It is not the type of tactic they should be using.”

Hyndburn MP Mr Jones, a campaigner against pay day loan firms and the spread of gambling, said: “Pay day and other short term loans draw people into a downward spiral of poverty and debt.

The Blackburn cash store manager referred the Lancashire Telegraph to her regional manager, who referred the paper to the firm’s head office where there was nobody available for comment yesterday.