A CAR loan company is demanding £6,000 from cancer sufferer Pat Ray who has been told not to drive and who has just learned husband Paul has been made redundant.

The shock came on top of hearing that repayments the never-used Laguna car purchased from Car Craft in Newport would be a massive £300-plus a month instead of the £46 a week they were led to believe, claims Paul, who lives at Edinburgh Place, Broadwell, near Coleford.

Loan company Online Finance's insistence that the couple take out comprehensive insurance on the vehicle, original price tag £7,900, means a total monthly outlay of £400-plus.

"All we want is for them to take the car back," said Paul, himself a non-driver. "Instead it looks as though they want about £14,000 all up."

Pat beat off abdominal cancer two years ago only for it to return in her back.

It has led to a permanently numbed right foot which doctors say would not allow her to control a car properly.

"I've beaten this before and I will beat it again," said Pat, who faces a daily battery of pills, weekly appointments in Gloucester and Cheltenham hospitals and additional chemotherapy sessions. She has to have a carer to help her dress, regular calls from nurses and can only move in a wheelchair.

"But I think the car loan people are particularly heartless – they're just laughing at us," she said.

Paul says that even before these woes emerged he had no idea they faced such big costs – the sales people had assured them they faced only £46 a week.

Redundancy had come as a shock "but at least it means I can be at home and look after Pat".

"I told them we no longer wanted the car and asked if they would take it back. They say they will, but insist we still owe them £6,000 and it hasn't even been used."

He is being helped by the Citizen's Advice Bureau but believes Online Finance could be more understanding under the circumstances.

Insurance company boss Mike Lee who handled insurance for the Rays' car said it seemed to him the high repayments meant there were add-ons, perhaps even redundancy cover, in the agreement, but the company was not being forthcoming on the issue.

"However in my industry we frequently see agreements which vastly overvalue the cars. There are many companies involved in this and it's a scandal worthy of proper investigation."

We telephoned Online Finance in Cardiff – whose letters carry an 'Investors in People' logo – where we were first passed to the collections department. There a representative said he was not prepared to comment on the issue. Pressed on this he said it was because of the Data Protection Act, and further asked if anyone higher in the company would be free to respond he said we should make a request in writing.