Page 18 - News Autumn_Winter 2024_Print

to reinstate its empty council houses, so that contract © 4kclips - stock.adobe.com
I GOT SACKED FOR SPENDING went out of the window too. Now I couldn't afford the
payments on my expensive cars or pay the bills on my
TOO MUCH TIME ON THE five-bedroom house, so they all went as well.
'HALLOWED TURF' As the money disappeared, so did my 'friends'. Sadly, my
marriage followed the collapse of my business ventures.
My wife, Carrie, had already left me once because of my
many lies but we'd got back together and had a lovely
It was then that things started to take off. I was just 24. daughter, Abbie. Now, my excessive drinking was the
I got a contract to clean a sport and fitness centre for problem. My excuse had always been “business stress”
£5,000 a month. Within eight weeks I had two contracts but, in reality, I loved the social life and the chilled-out
bringing in £10,000 a month! Everything snowballed feeling having too many pints gave me. Now that my
from there with more cleaning contracts coming in from businesses had gone, I could no longer use that excuse.
Manchester, Bolton and Northampton. I employed staff
to do the work and happily banked the profits. But the We moved to Paignton in 2015 to try and start a new
real money started to come in when I won a contact with life, but it didn't work out and we moved back to
Wolverhampton Council repairing and cleaning council Wolverhampton in 2017. Things only got worse, and we
houses between tenancies. Now I was subcontracting separated that same year.
work out to carpenters, electricians, plumbers and other
tradespeople. More and more money kept flowing in. I've always loved Torbay and so I decided to start over
and moved back on my own in 2019. That is when I
At the age of 27, I added a night club and wine bar to became 'The Pillow Man'. I had a massive set up on
my 'business empire'. It was a short walk away from Torquay's Street Market, selling all sorts of bedding. Life
the Molineux Stadium and six hundred or so football ticked along but then something happened that was to
supporters would come in after a home game and empty change my life for the better. In October 2021, a “strange”
their wallets into my tills. stall turned up on the Torquay Street Market: “GOOD
I had so much money through those years I didn't know NEWS for Everyone!” The two folks on it were friendly
what to do with it. I spent it on flash new cars, I spent loads and always seemed content. I call the stall “strange”
of money on motor homes, holidays abroad, booze and because it was giving away everything on it. Every other
gambling. It was nothing to me to lose three thousand stall on the market was bent on making a profit but not
pounds on a Friday night in the local casino. My accountant Alan and Rose; if they only gave away one Bible, they
said to me later, “If you hadn't spent your money on all were happy! That is what they were giving away: Bibles
those things you'd have been a millionaire by now!” and other Christian literature.
But then it all went pear-shaped. Virgin bought out the Now this made me think. Everyone else in my childhood
chain of sports and fitness centres and decided to do family had been christened but somehow, I had missed
all its cleaning in-house, so I lost those contracts. Then out. This played on my mind for many months until I
Wolverhampton Council began employing its own staff could wait no longer. In August 2022, I walked over to the

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