An ex-criminal from Liverpool has shared how he turned his life around after being named Australia’s Most Wanted Fugitive in 2017.
Podcaster and author Neil Cummins, 47, now living in Sydney, Australia has led a life surrounded by events and people one usually would only witness in movies – riddled with bullets, gang wars, guns and being on a criminal hit list.
Neil is a celebrity bodyguard who worked for many famous VIPs when they visited Sydney, Australia.
Some of them include the British tycoon Richard Branson, British singer Craig David, radio host Kyle Sandilands, singer Delt Goodrem, singer Guy Sabastian, American rapper Ja Rule, Irish singer Brian McFadden, cricketer Brian Lara, coach Dwight Yorke, singer Natalie Imbruglia, environmentalist Mimi Macpherson, actress Carmen Electra, DJ Havana Brown, rapper Lil Wayne, singer Ashley Roberts, and the band Stafford Brothers
Son of a Liverpool nightclub owner in the city for decades, Neil was exposed to gangsters and gang life while growing up in the mean streets of the city.
Neil’s godfather was none other than the well-known Liverpool nightclub owner, Charlie Scott
At the age of 18, Neil moved to Australia in 1992 and started working for criminal mastermind John Ibrahim in 2004.
Australian Police allege Ibrahim was a "major organised-crime figure” and was labelled as the "lifeblood of the drugs industry of Kings Cross, Sydney Australia" during the 1995 Wood Royal Commission.
Neil started working for Ibrahim from 2004, running the doors of his 14 nightclubs before eventually becoming his personal bodyguard and looking after him and his family.
After becoming Ibrahim’s personal bodyguard, Neil's life took a turn deep into the abyss of the underworld.
One of the incidents involved him getting in a fight with Beyonce’s bodyguard for not letting John Ibrahim’s girlfriend into the VIP section.
Neil insisted he was carrying out a debt collecting job worth a whopping £501K, when he was listed by police as one of Australia’s Most Wanted accused of extortion, demand with menace and intimidation.
He was found guilty of these charges but due to insufficient evidence to put him behind bars, he received a suspended sentence.
Neil’s journey out of the underworld was tougher than his descent into the criminal circles he found himself inside.
He was so deeply involved into the activities of the underworld that he narrowly escaped death before he could get clean.
“There was a hit on my life back in 2007 when I was standing at the front door of DCM’S nightclub owned by John Ibrahim,” said Neil.
“A rival gang drove past and shot 7/8 bullets at where I would have usually stood.
“Just ten-minutes prior, I had moved to another spot and thus got saved.
“Five bullets hit the glass right behind my usual spot in the nightclub.
“There was also this time when I was involved in a massive gang war.
“I went into a serious depression and just wanted to die. It was a choice between choosing myself or saving my boss, John Ibrahim.”
By 2009 Neil’s situation got worse, especially since rivals and other people from the underworld started using his family as means to blackmail him.
“I use to get phone calls off rival gangs telling me that while I’m body-guarding John they would break into my partner’s place and rape her,” he said.
“Once, people from a rival gang stopped me at a mall with guns thinking I had something hidden in my jacket when it was just my four-month old daughter in a baby pouch.
“My mother told me if I don’t stop working for him then she no longer had a son and I would be dead to her.
“She told my step-sisters and brother to not speak to me or else she’ll take them off her will.
“I knew it was time to leave that world behind and prioritise my family who I love dearly.”
When he decided to leave the dark world because of his loving partner and family, things took a turn for worse and he became Australia’s Most Wanted Fugitive in 2017. People were told not to go near him as he was deemed a criminal.
“The scariest thing I have been through is when I left working for John Ibrahim and became Australia’s Most Wanted Fugitive in 2017,” he said.
“I knew that the whole country was looking for me and my face was plastered all over TV, radios and newspapers with messages saying that I was very dangerous.
“I remember hiding in a hotel till my solicitor could see me.
“I could not even leave the room because my face was blasting in all corners of the hotel lobby too.
“I had this feeling that I would never see my kids again.
“I felt so bad and out of control of the situation.”
After getting a tip-off from a Sydney newspaper about being listed as Australia’s most wanted fugitive, Neil went into hiding in a hotel after a chat with his solicitor.
Luckily for him, Neil didn’t serve any time in jail as there was not enough evidence to charge him.
He received an eighteen-month of suspended jail and community service instead.
Even though Neil was, at one point, Australia’s Most Wanted Fugitive, since returning to the UK, he lives fearlessly now even though ex-rivals know about his whereabouts.
“Rival gangs and members came up to me and shook my hand after I left John Ibrahim,” he said.
“They asked me to join them, but I refused out of respect for John.
“I feel safe now and have no fear, as fear is for the weakest.
“I have learnt my lessons that one should not trust even the guy who says he is on your side.
“Everyone has a price. At the end of the day, I was just a number and can be replaced.
“There is no loyalty in this world.”
Neil says that his future is bright. He has already published a memoir of his time working as a bodyguard for John Ibrahim and his life in the world titled ‘The Muscle’ and he is currently writing a second book.
“The future for Neil Cummins is massive,” he said.
“I just recently did a TV series with Sullivan Stapleton which was really cool and we have become very good friends after.
“My podcast “Secrets of the Underworld “ is up to Season 3 and is going really well overseas, especially in the US and the UK.
“I have two new books coming out that I am writing at the moment and I have just got my own three hour radio show called “Secrets of the underworld“.
“I have got a TV show coming out which is the Australia version of Ross Kemp TV show called ‘The Muscle’ where I go around talking to gang members, prison inmates, drug barons all around Australia.
“However the biggest thing that I do and will continue to do is talking to teenagers and young boys by going around schools, telling them that the gang life isn’t everything its made out to be.
"I talk to young men about the stresses of mental health and how one should not be afraid to ask for help.
“This has been a goal of mine for years since I tried to take my own life.”
