I Am Not A Gangster

An explosive account of life in the criminal underworld by one of Britain's most dangerous men

At 16, Bobby Cummines became one of the youngest people in Britain to be convicted of carrying a sawn-off shotgun. He quickly became a gangland leader and was convicted of a number of serious offences including manslaughter and bank robbery. After serving 12 years in many of the UK's maximum security prisons, he went on to become a founder member and chief executive of UNLOCK, a charity which helps people with criminal convictions reintegrate into society. He is also a co-founder of Midas which helps young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. 
 
Bobby is one of the UK's leading penal reformers and has advised Ministers and Judges as well as public and private sector agencies on prison and rehabilitation. His passion is talking to young people in schools and colleges, deterring them from what they might perceive as a glamorous lifestyle by highlighting the harsh realities of crime and prison. This is his first book.

'I am not a gangster,' I spat. 'I'm a businessman trying to make a hard-earned crust. Understood?' 
 
I didn't give him time to reply. I took the barrel out of his mouth and smashed him in the face with the butt. His lip split, but he wasn't a dead man. He seemed to appreciate that his life had been spared. 
 
He spluttered his thanks: 'Ok, you’re not a gangster. You are not a gangster.' 
 
This is the gripping true story of how one man ruled his north London manor with an iron fist – and a sawn-off shotgun called Kennedy. It’s a shocking insight into a society where the rules are made by gangland leaders and if anybody dare break them, they have to deal with the consequences. 
 
Bobby was sent to prison for the first time in 1967, aged 16, and over the next decade he established himself as a hardened criminal running protection rackets and robberies against a backdrop of all-out gang warfare, where doorstep slayings and bloody shoot-outs were common. 
 
Eventually Bobby was sentenced to 12 years in Britain’s most notorious prisons, along with the Krays, Charlie Richardson and the Yorkshire Ripper. Inside, he was introduced to the Open University and on his release he soon got down to business again. Only this time his efforts saw him go from custody of Her Majesty’s Prison Service to meeting with the Queen herself... 
 
I Am Not A Gangster is an explosive account of life in the criminal underworld by one of Britain’s most dangerous men, but above all it’s a remarkable tale of redemption with the biggest turnaround in gangland history.

Bobby Cummines

My Time Locked Up with Britain’s Most Notorious Criminals

‘The next stage meant that there was no going back. An Irish prisoner stepped forward and slipped a blade into my hand. I felt the ice cold metal and pressed it against the governor’s cheek. I thought to myself: would they ever release me after this?’ 
 
Bobby Cummines was only 28 when he passed through the grim gates of Parkhurst, Britain’s Alcatraz, as a category-A prisoner with a host of crimes to his name. Joining the most notorious gangsters and criminals of the day – from the Krays, the Yorkshire Ripper and Charles Bronson, to high ranking members of the IRA – nothing could have prepared him for the brutal regime, violent convicts, vindictive screws and riots on the inside. It’s the story of Britain’s most hellish prison, from one of its hardest inmates.

The Parkhurst Years

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