Conversations with Criminals

Ian "Lucky" Tucker has a huge reputation and featured on Donal MacIntyre's Underworld. I met him at Dave Courtney's house and the two of them talk about the 7 years that they spent working together. To call them debt collectors is perhaps too narrow. Their day to day lives meant a wide range of jobs from dealing with a male stripper to retrieving Freddie Foreman's Ferrari.

Paul Bethell was sentenced to 15 years for aggravated burglary on a joint enterprise charge. He is still on licence which means that he could be re-called and go back to jail, but he is determined to stay out of trouble. Paul talks about his crack addiction and recovery. He also talks about how he has changed and learned empathy towards victims of crime.   www.conversationswithcriminals.com

Frank Portinari was a football hooligan, a member of the National Front, he is the ex-commander of London UDA – Ulster Defence Association and he went to jail for supplying guns.     www.frankportinari.com TWITTER @DoormanFrank Frank's has written one book that has two different titles AMAZON https://www.amazon.co.uk/Loyalist-Paramilitary-Gunrunner-Extremism-Prison/dp/1699123314/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=frank+portinari&qid=1602512666&sr=8-1   The other title is "Left right Loyalist : From one extreme to another   Frank is currently writing his second book...        

Part two with Lee Ryan and it's brilliant again! Lee talks about the threats to his family after his huge lotto win and how the criminals in leicester reacted to his winning. We talk about the value of money, Lee tells me about losing all his money and choosing to be homeless for 5 years.

Lee Ryan was a car thief from Leicester who stole cars for various people, including arms dealers in overseas countries. He also stole vehicles for various crime-related work. We talk about the logistics of stealing cars and how that's changed from the nineties when he was at the height of his criminal career. He was dubbed by the press as the “lotto lag.”When he was in prison, he prayed and asked God to make him a multi-millionaire. He won 6.5 million quid on the lottery and as his cellmate predicted, things did not end well...

In 1996 Darren Barden was at home on a Monday night when there was a knock on the door. He was stabbed 20 times by two men and his best-selling book "Let's skip to the good bits", documents a 20-year journey to get his life back. This is a very candid interview about the consequences of knife crime and Darren talks very honestly about what the attack did to him and his family.  He now uses his experiences to inspire other people. Darren's book is here : https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lets-Skip-Good-Bits-Courageous/dp/1527221628/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1TJH46APX2PE8&dchild=1&keywords=darren+barden&qid=1599304180&sprefix=darren+barden%2Caps%2C152&sr=8-1   Darren's youtube channel and podcast : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7YtScSpLgttKJ2BengPmSw   Change your life, put down your knife campaign : https://www.facebook.com/groups/668677394003375        

This is part of 2 of a chat with ex-bank robber Vinnie Bradish. We talk about prison violence and the differences between different category prisons, getting out of prison after a long term sentence, and trying to adapt to a more normal life. And we hear what Vinnie is doing now and it's fascinating...   www.conversationswithcriminals.com

Today's guest is Vinnie Bradish who was a bank robber.  In part 1 of two parts, we talk about why armed robbers are given such respect in jail. We talk about the reality of robbing a bank and how it was just a job. I ask him about being interrogated by police and what it's like to be sentenced to 22 years in jail. I will leave you to decide whether Vinnie and his brother Shaun were given a fair trial or not after Stephen Roberts turned Queen's evidence against them in order to get a reduced sentence.