Eric Allison, who has died aged 79, had two careers, both profitable in their own way. For 50 years he was a dedicated criminal; a fraudster, burglar and bank robber. For the last 19 years of his life, he was the Guardian’s prisons correspondent – every bit as devoted to exposing injustice as he had been to screwing the system when a criminal.
Eric came from a family of “straight-goers” – Alf, his father, was tiny in size and mighty in discipline, his mother Nellie (Ellen) adored him despite his lawless ways, and three brothers who would not have dreamed of committing a crime. But Eric was made of different stuff. He never made excuses – he loved the buzz, the danger, the camaraderie, the wins. He was not so keen on the losses, though he never complained about serving time for a crime he had committed. A fair cop was a fair cop.
