Tragic Leeds student, 21, was in debt to payday lenders '“ inquest told

Wakefield Coroner’s Court heard 21-year-old year one human geography student Naseeb Chuhan was found dead at an address in Leeds on May 28 last year.

Naseeb’s father Kuljit Chuhan told the inquest that he had discovered after his son’s death that he been granted a number of payday loans.

Mr Chuhan said: “In my mind what begins as something quite innocent and just as a one off and when you get to the end of that you realise you have overspent.

“I think it something that slowly creeps up. I think that’s how payday loans work. I think he was tempted into it.”

Priscilla Preston director of services for students at Leeds Beckett University, told the inquest the university has “a lot of students” who experience debt.

Julie-Anne Luck, for Naseeb Chuhan’s family, asked her: “Are you aware of payday loan companies targeting the student population?”

Miss Preston replied: “Yes. I don’t know how they do it. I should imagine social media is one tool they use.

“It is something we communicate to students about. We encourage students to come in and talk to us about money worries.”

The inquest heard Naseeb started studying at Leeds Beckett in September 2015 and completed all the work required of him up to the end of that year.

But the inquest heard his studies started to suffer after Christmas and he failed to hand in course work and did not attend an exam in January 2016 or the resit in April.

The inquest heard Naseeb went to see a locum GP on May 25 and said he had been been feeling down for several years. Later that day he spoke to a student wellbeing officer at Leeds Beckett University’s hub and an appointment was made for him to speak to a counsellor on May 27, but he did not attend.

Consultant pathologist Dr Lisa Barker, who conducted a post mortem on Naseeb, told the inquest the cause of death was hanging.

Proceeding.