178:–doing less damage but causing serious pain and removing any forensic evidence. Cummines claims he was taught to dehumanize anyone he killed, to think of them as vermin, saying that if you did think about it then you would think of their families and guilt. He did, however, feel sorry for one death; a hostage in a routine bank heist died due to suffering a serious panic attack, where he vomited and choked on a gag.
146:. He pleaded guilty and paid the fine. Upon returning to his place of work (a shipping office), where they had read about the guilty plea in the newspaper, he was fired. Cummines said that with a criminal record, it was incredibly difficult to find another job, and so thought "if you're gonna make me a bad guy, I'll show you how bad I can be."
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He described the moment he decided to get into crime, saying as he was walking through the park, he noticed two individuals he had previous encounters with and two police officers allegedly mistreated the two during interrogations, which led
Cummines to speak up, saying that as the two involved were
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Cummines has criticised the system of high-security prisons, which places many brilliant criminal minds in one location and thus enables them to teach each other tricks and establish connections. He has said that if he had not wanted to escape criminal life he would have used these techniques, such
142:, and said that they would arrest him as well for possession of the blade. He was told that if he pleaded guilty to the possession charge, he would only have to pay a 10 shilling fine, whereas if he chose to proceed to a trial, he would likely be convicted and sentenced to time in a
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Cummines was sentenced to 18 years when an arms dealer (referred to as "Ernie" in his autobiography) informed and told the authorities almost everything
Cummines and his gang had done. Ernie worked with the police to entrap Cummines, telling him he had an
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hostage for being "unreasonable". This led authorities to designate him as a class "A" prisoner, causing him to be frequently moved from one prison to another. In his autobiography, Cummines details how he met a broad range of people, from members of the
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who was willing to help him and contributed a foreword to his published poems, as well as changing rules so that the aim of prisons was stated to be to "rehabilitate and educate" rather than the free-for-all ethos that
Cummines had experienced.
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from April 1999 until March 2012. Despite being described as a gangster in media, Cummines has refused the label, saying he never considered himself one, instead stating he was a "businessman whose business was crime."
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sub-machine gun for sale, allowing multiple armed police to ambush and arrest him. He went to prison and within the first few months he had taken a
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Cummines began a criminal career at the age of 16, beating up those who owed associates money, but quickly moved on, becoming
Britain's youngest
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minors, an adult had to be present during questioning. According to
Cummines, the two officers then left for a short period and returned with a
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113:(born 23 November 1951) is an English former gang leader, protection racketeer, armed robber, and criminal enforcer who was chief executive of
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350:"From Organised Crime to OBE: How London gangster Bobby Cummines became a model citizen"
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with his fearsome reputation and a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun named "Kennedy" after
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as building bombs or smuggling illicit goods. He then studied for a degree with the
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430:"Former bank robber dreams of academies to help prisoners go straight"
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Cummines turned his life around in prison after a conversation with
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in June 2011 in recognition of his services to reformed offenders.
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known as "The Chaps", employing extreme violence in 1970s
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Unlock, The
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401:"Interview: my life behind bars"
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515:Alumni of the Open University
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126:Robert Cummines was born in
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225:awarded Cummines the
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321:I Am Not A Gangster
234:I Am Not A Gangster
232:His autobiography,
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223:Queen Elizabeth II
219:whilst in prison.
204:Charlie Richardson
525:English gangsters
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319:Cummines, Bobby.
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208:Tony Benn
197:gangsters
128:Islington
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150:Career
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