Grafters

Product Description

Updated with new photographs. Colin Blaneys Grafters" originally published in 2004 was a ground-breaking expose of the links between criminal gangs & football hooliganism. In the intervening period the book & the phrase have become part of the lexicon defining a generation of professional thieves who used the cover of their fellow football fans to earn a fortune. Eight years on author Colin Blaney returns with an updated version of his criminal memoirs & recounts his experiences as a personality in the murky media world that accompanies public relations -- principally his shady dealings with tabloid journalists TV producers & researchers. In Colins words he was thrown in at the deep end to " Swim with the sharks". Its all a far cry from Colins adolescence in the council fl ats of North Manchester. As a child he burgled warehouses & factories. As a youth he joined the bootboys of Manchester Uniteds Red Army rampaging across the country. As an adult he learned to dip with the Scouse pickpocket gangs sell dope to Rastas in the Moss Side shebeens & sneak-thieve from shop tills with his mad Collyhurst crew. But Continental Europe offered the greatest lure. The gang moved to Amsterdam which became their HQ for the next twenty years. They stole Rolex watches in Switzerland peddled Ecstasy in Spain kited credit cards in Belgium flogged bootleg tee-shirts in France & snatched designer clothes in Holl&. Blaney & his Wide Awake Frim served time in half the jails in Europe & then went back for more. They were on a riotous non stop roller-coaster ride -- until they finally hit the buffers."