The former leader of Manchester City’s hooligan gang has been jailed after accidentally tipping off police he was a loan shark.

Mickey Francis’ chronicled his days as a hardman of the terraces in the book ‘Guvnors’, published 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.

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.

Watch: Mickey Francis in a promotional film for 'The Guvnor Of Wrestling'

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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 moneylending, 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’.

When the judge replied that people would know ‘what kind of man’ Francis was from his record, Mr Jarvis 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.

“However the paperwork meant that we didn’t have to scrabble around on mobile phones, like we have to a lot of the time. Paperwork on this scale is unusual and the CCTV footage was very helpful with the drugs case”, she added.

A number of others caught in the same investigation were sentenced alongside Francis. Lisa Elms, 45, of Freshwater Drive, Ashton-under-Lyne, admitted illegal money lending as did Garry Azzopardi, 29, of Kenchester Avenue, Openshaw, and Jason Westmorland, 42, of Droylsden Road, Newton Heath. Andrew Farren, 49, of Waterloo Street, Moston admitted being concerned in the production of cannabis, and Matthew Hudson, 31, of Sawley Road, Miles Platting, admitted possessing cannabis with intent to supply. All with the exception of Hudson had either helped Francis in his loans business or his cannabis farm.