‘British army loan shark squad forced my son to commit suicide’

However, Ms Blackwell, from Bristol, has now criticized the sentence, which included just two months, for running a payday loan scheme that the judge described as “treacherous”.

Rfn Worner – the youngest of four – suffered from depression before his death, but his mother believes the pressure put on him to repay the interest on the loan contributed to his decision to take his own life.

After the trial she said: “When we lost Nathan we couldn’t believe what had happened. We knew he was depressed and that there was a lot going on, but we didn’t know what.

“When he died we had his bank statements and that’s when I realized something shady was going on.”

Mrs Blackwell, 52, said her son had paid back “every penny” he borrowed but owed Saedi the same again thanks to the exorbitant interest rate.

Claudius Scott, 31, led the operation that brought the cocaine from west London to the soldiers’ base. The scheme’s second-in-command, Saedi, also 31, operated alongside ‘trusted dealers’ Lance Corporal Bradley Hesketh, 27, and Rifleman Ashleigh Walker. The court was told that one gram of cocaine would cost £90, while a dealer would get £10.

Scott and Saedi each made more than £40,000 from their crimes. They both left the military.

Mrs Blackwell said seeing the four defendants in court was “horrific”, adding that police had discovered machetes at their homes, showing how her son had been tortured by criminals.