Gresham Trust, the UK private equity house, has led the £16m (€26m) round of investment in 1st Credit, a debt purchase and collection agency, backing entrepreneur Mike Cleary for the second time.

Gresham has committed £5m, with a further facility provided by Barclays. Gresham first backed Cleary five years ago, investing in Cleary's £4m management buy-out of debt collections business CCI.