Synopsis
Updated with new photographs. Colin Blaney's Grafters originally published in 2004, was a ground-breaking exposé of the links between criminal gangs and football hooliganism. In the intervening period the book and 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 and recounts his experiences as a personality in the murky media world that accompanies public relations -- principally his shady dealings with tabloid journalists, TV producers and researchers. In Colin's words he was thrown in at the deep end to Swim with the sharks. It's all a far cry from Colin's adolescence in the council fl ats of North Manchester. As a child he burgled warehouses and factories. As a youth he joined the bootboys of Manchester United's 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 and 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 and snatched designer clothes in Holland. Blaney and his Wide Awake Frim served time in half the jails in Europe and then went back for more. They were on a riotous, non stop roller-coaster ride until they finally hit the buffers.
From the Back Cover
Colin Blaney made small time crime big business. Growing up in Manchester in an Irish Catholic family, he set out on a mission - to burn his way through a world of easy money, scams and good times.
As a child he burgled warehouses and factories before joining Manchester United's Red Army, a hooligan mob rampaging across the country, stealing as he went. As an adult he learned to dip with pickpocket gangs, sell dope, and sneak-thieve from shop tills with his own gang of criminals, without a care for the law.
Europe offered the greatest lure, where serious money could be made, or stolen. From their base in Amsterdam, Blaney's gang, the Wide Awake Firm, spread across the continent, doing anything and everything to make some easy money. From stealing Rolex watches in Switzerland, to selling Ecstasy in Spain, to using dodgy credit cards in Belgium, they enjoyed a prolific twenty-year crime spree that fuelled their hell-raiser lifestyles.
Blaney and his gang served time in half the jails in Europe, bided their time, and then went back for more. They simply didn't care. They were on a riotuous,
non-stop, rollercoaster ride - until they finally came off the tracks. They never saw that the end was in sight, because as any grafter will tell you:
Some people live for the day, a grafter lives for the minute.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
