MARK ROBINSON, a freelance photographer who got work through the Warbarth Project, which helps ex-offenders

I left school at 17 and was a foreign exchange broker in Hong Kong and Bahrain, in the Middle East. In the late 1980s I returned to Europe but I got pneumonia and my liver and kidneys packed in from too much alcohol.

I came back to England and moved to Cornwall about six or seven years ago. I smoked a bit of weed and ended up dealing – not big money, it was only about £10 to £20 a week and gave me a few luxuries. I got nicked and was put down for 56 days, but served 28. Nine months before I went to prison my twin boys were born, so I knew I had to sort myself out.

When I got out of prison I tried to get work but some people didn’t like the fact that I had a conviction and that I lived in a caravan, so I went self-employed as a photographer.

I was introduced to the Warbarth Project through the Job Centre. The project contributed funding for me to buy a laptop, which really got me going. They also told me how to become self-employed and helped me to find a photography course.

My adviser, Stuart Bell, has been my point of contact the whole time. He’s unbelievable.

At the Job Centre I didn’t feel that people could help me, but Stuart quickly put my mind at rest.

The local circus, Circo Kernow, gets me to do all their publicity and action shots and I regularly photograph music festivals in Cornwall.

My contact with the project is an ongoing thing. I still see Stuart regularly. He’s useful, helpful, and he gives me the right answers. The bosses liked my work so much that they have employed me to take photographs of their projects.

The project follows you up the whole time – not slapping your wrists and saying ‘have you done that?’, but saying ‘how are you doing?’

When your luck is down you feel that no one is there to help and everyone wants you to fail. But they wanted me to succeed. If any of my mates are having a problem getting work and they have a conviction, I say: ‘Go see Stuart, he’ll help you out.’ But you have to want to do it – you’re not going to get something for nothing.

I’m totally straight now. I’ve got my boys to look after. It would be so easy to get back into that life, and without the project I wouldn’t have stopped. It has changed my life.

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