Urban Rampage has been ordered by the national corporate regulator to stop customers on welfare paying through a federal government credit scheme, with the agency saying the company targets welfare recipients living in remote Aboriginal communities, and more than 5,000 customers had signed up at the Alice Springs store alone.

Australian Securities and Investment Commission deputy chair Sarah Court said the authority issued an interim stop order over concerns that the credit arrangements using a facility called Centrepay were causing vulnerable consumers severe financial harm since the company’s target market was consumers who are primarily low-income recipients of Centrelink payments living in remote Aboriginal communities.

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