Soon afterwards I was promoted to detective, and soon after that Scotland Yard came calling. At the Yard I embarked on a career working undercover. International drug baron, contract killer, trader in arms, counterfeit currency and handler of high-value stolen goods, I portrayed them all for over a decade. I became the most commended cop of my generation.

Then it all went wrong. The FBI discovered a plot to murder me and I entered the witness protection programme. My police career was coming to an end.

In 2001 my autobiography was published, and I entered the world of the media. I began to commentate on crime, policing and more, and I worked, and still do, as a story consultant to TV and film production companies. My autobiography, The Gangbuster, was published in January 2017 and two further books, On The Run and To Catch a Killer were published soon after that.

In recent years I have written three plays for BBC Radio 4, and in 2015 I became involved in a new programme for Channel 4, entitled Hunted. I was engaged as the Deputy Chief of a team of hunters who track down members of the public who have become ‘fugitives’. After the first series I was promoted to Chief, and in the last series my team tracked down and caught every single contestant on the show. 

Now I’m turning my attention back to real life fugitives…watch this space.