Thousands of copies have been sold of a true crime memoir detailing an insider's account of drugs trafficking in Nottinghamshire, across the country and on foreign shores. The Old Man and Me; A Gangster’s Life, A Son’s Journey by Jason Wilson is proving an eye-opener for journalists, ex-police officers, and several Midlands criminals. It has also come to the attention of a Labour MP and a children’s charity.
Jason's book is also a true crime book with a difference. His father was Anthony Spencer, a smuggler/importer and a key supplier to some of Nottingham’s infamous drug lords. Previously a successful entrepreneur in Coventry, Spencer would run into financial difficulties and turn to armed robbery.
Sentenced to 10 years, upon release he would apply his business skills to drug distribution and become the key importer of hash and amphetamine for central England and specifically Nottinghamshire.
READ MORE: Son opens up on life with dad who was 'Public Enemy No. 1' and supplied Notts' crime lords
In detail, Jason describes the process: international, national, and regional. He routinely drove into the estates of Nottinghamshire to collect “paperwork” (cash) from the region’s crime groups which, in turn, would immediately be sent to Holland and Spain in a relentless turnover of drugs and money.
One typical scene describes calling in on “Ryan James” who helps Jason stash £85,000 into a spare tyre to assure safe transport from one estate. The book is riddled with such elaborate details of such figures and working within an organised crime group; both the day-to-day minutiae and some of the dramatic and often stomach-churning events that are inevitable in the underworld.
Even so, whilst the book is able to take readers into the reality of organised crime, it is not able to name as many names as some journalists, for instance, would like. Some key figures even now are protected by aliases, most notably “Ryan James”, a workaholic criminal from Nottingham with a sharp mind who resembled Jason’s own father.
However, others are named, such as Shokat Chenia, a Leicester drug dealer later murdered, double murderer Daniel Sowerby, a Scunthorpe man now serving a life sentence in The Netherlands, Oxfordshire’s ex-prison governor Jogendranath Rajcoomar, who would serve three prison sentences. There are other Spencer associates, many named if they have been convicted, are dead, or have granted permission, often because they have served their time, or their criminal careers are far behind them now.
Ultimately, Spencer’s reign as the Midlands' key supplier would eventually come to an end. His organisation would be targeted by the Regional Crime Squad and, over a three-year period, a series of raids and trials at Birmingham Crown Court would see Spencer flee abroad to Amsterdam.
He appeared out of reach but nevertheless in 2001 would then be involved in a dramatic shootout with Bradford man David Royle. The gun battle would see Spencer shoot Royle dead whilst himself receiving a bullet to the chest. Recovering from his injury and consequently labelled 'Public Enemy No.1', Spencer fled to Spain where a year later he would be arrested for smuggling hash.
Sentenced to seven years, he would serve four, during which he would be extradited to Holland and cleared of killing David Royle; his claim that he acted in self-defence was accepted.
Returning to the UK, he attempted to start over but was immediately targeted by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in partnership with Dutch Police. However, by now he was no longer the force he once was, no longer the region's key supplier, and, in 2010 with nine others, he would receive a five-year sentence for drugs conspiracy.
Early into this sentence he would be diagnosed with a terminal lung cancer. This was believed to have been caused by the earlier gunshot injury he received in the Amsterdam shootout.
Released on compassionate grounds, Spencer would live a further four years before passing way in 2015 with little money and apparently no regrets. Following his father’s death, Jason, of Coventry, now retrained and working as a Mental Health Worker, decided to write his father’s story but with a twist: to include several aspects usually absent from such true crime biographies.
Both a biography and memoir, The Old Man and Me would provide a first-hand authentic account of Midlands organised crime via his father’s story. As well as depicting high-level organised crime, the book shows the extensive prison time faced by many of the region’s crime bosses, the affects on their own families, the personal cost many pay which leads to the realisation that the criminal life is ultimately wasteful and tragic.
This perhaps highlights the moral dimension often missing by such true crime books. However, the son of a crime boss, Jason has seen the sides usually ignored in previous accounts of organised crime. Moreover, there was one question often ignored and one which Jason long pursued answers for.
He said: "Why do so many crime figures not stand down from crime when they have earned enough? Why is there a need to keep going until they get caught? Most of the region's crime figures without doubt made millions but most have ended up serving long sentences and clinging on to what they made which is often far below official estimates.
“This is central to the book. What is the motivation behind such crime figures because if it was just about the money, each of them would have stopped, stepped down, or retired abroad. This was one aspect of organised crime I wanted to address. The second, is how does it affect the families and in particular the children of the people who are drawn into organised crime?”
Undoubtedly, this has great personal relevance. It would lead to Jason being invited to attend a focus group at Parliament organised by Labour Bristol MP Kerry McCarthy and the Oxford-based charity Children Heard and Seen which seeks to support children with a parent in prison. This is the first such focus group and it hopes to bring visibility and transform attitudes to an issue long ignored.
“Currently, a prison sentence punishes the partner and the children as much as it does the inmate," says Jason. "The children have done nothing wrong. Yet they are often the victims in such a situation in terms of mental health, education, and social stigma. Really, the convicted parent should pay for the crime, not the children.
"We are hoping to bring change and that begins by people writing and talking about such experiences. My own writing with The Old Man and Me marries this ignored aspect of the criminal life to the reality of organised crime and the crime figures that define it. I hope the book will serve as a reality check for many, a social document for others, but ultimately a cautionary tale to the aspiring drug lords of the future as to the true cost to be paid for a life of crime.”
The Old Man and Me; A Gangster’s Life, A Son’s Journey is reviewed by Noel ‘Razor’ Smith in the next edition of the prison newspaper Inside Time and can be found on Amazon.
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