A Wellington man says the owner of a high-cost loan store tried to intimidate him after he emailed to complain about the business's conduct.
Photo: Supplied / Sam Pavan
It is the latest incident in a feud between the owner of Superloans, which opened on the edge of Cuba Street a couple of weeks ago, and neighbours who want him gone.
Superloans, which offers interest rates ranging from 0 to just under 50 percent, has set up shop on the edge of Wellington's CBD.
It is next door to number of refugee and migrant support services and round the corner from a large social housing complex - with more being built.
A local is unhappy their new neighbour was photographed writing on the store's window: "Loan sharks are not welcome in this neighbourhood."
Superloans then hung two large photos in the storefront of the woman, one which read: "Wow! The taggers in Te Aro are old as hell!!"
Sam Pavan who works nearby, emailed Superloans to complain that the posters were disrespectful, mocking and prejudicial, and asked they be taken down.
Two days later he said he was walking past the Superloans store when he overheard a man outside telling to two other men about "this guy Sam who had emailed him".
Pavan said: "I chose not to engage in person at the time with these three large men standing on the street, and kept walking."
Pavan thought initially it was just a strange coincidence.
But then a few weeks later, on Sunday 28 February, he got an email from Wellington Superloans owner Paul Ryan calling him a "troll".
In it, Ryan said he "called [Pavan] out" when he walked past, but "like all trolls, you won't say anything to my face or even turn around".
Pavan said he now thought Ryan was trying to intimidate him.
"It was clearly some sort of bullying tactic on his behalf to try and make me feel uncomfortable. But I also feel that it is important to tell this story because I think that if someone is going to behave this way to the public that others should know about it."
Pavan said it was creepy and unnerving.
Ryan declined to be interviewed but in an email tried to intimidate Pavan, saying he recognised Pavan because his previous employer had done work for Ryan.
He also denied denigrating older people in general and the woman in the picture because she was damaging his property and only mentioned her age in the posters because "it's amusing".
In Ryan's response to Pavan he told him to mind his own business and threatened to make him the butt of the joke in his next poster.
Ryan said because of the objections to the posters he left them up longer.
But Pavan said Ryan was clearly inviting a public response by putting the mocking posters up in the first place.
When asked if he had behaved appropriately towards Pavan - Ryan replied "yes". He said he would not apologise to Pavan or the woman in the poster.
For his part, Pavan said he did not want an apology, instead, he wanted Ryan to treat people with respect.
Resident association Inner City Wellington chairperson Rev Stephen King said Ryan's aggressive tone would put people off and ultimately hit him in the pocket.
"I'm surprised that someone that is in his industry would appear to be so thin-skinned - 'sticks and stones' that is what we tell our kids.
"I think that really [the situation] just needs to de-escalate."
Ngā Tāngata Microfinance is a social service provider that gives fee and interest-free loans.
Its general manager, Natalie Vincent, said the excessive interest, administration and penalty fees charged by pay-day loan companies could have terrible repercussions.
"It just adds up and adds up and adds up and ... a lot of time people can't keep on top of it. The debt just grows and grows and it becomes a debt spiral.
"People [sometimes] then borrow off another high-cost lender and then it just gets out of control."
Vincent said there has been record demand for their services, up 128 percent last year on the previous one.
She said people wanting Ngā Tāngata's services should contact their local budgeting service.
Vincent said Ngā Tāngata provided wrap-around services to help people better their finances long term.