Finalist James was smashed by car and convicted after dad stole gangster cash
James in show
James had troubled childhood officer Dean had been jailed for nearly four years for his part in a £15million plot to smuggle five tons of cannabis.
“If dad wasn’t driving trucks, he was in prison,” admits James. “He was smuggling drugs across Europe. “
When James turned 14, the family moved to a village outside York and things seemed to be looking up.
“Moving saved me,” says James. “It was cool to be top of your class. I did well at GCSEs and I went on to go to Hull University to study sports and science.”
But their luxury lifestyle was funded by Dean’s criminal exploits.
At his trial for money laundering in 2011, it emerged Dean had been asked to hide the drug dealers’ money in the wheel of his HGV and take it to Spain.
But he went on a six-month spending spree, splashing out £477,000 for a house, buying four cars, a £230,000 yacht and a £5,000 diamond pendant for Derry. He had so much loot he also asked James, Nathan and their cousins to open up bank accounts to try to hide it.
Dean was sentenced to three-and-ahalf years for money laundering, while Derry, who James describes as “such a beautiful, lovely mum” got 18 months.
The brothers got suspended sentences after admitting to conspiracy charges.
“Dad set up accounts in our name,” James says. “Obviously you shouldn’t but it is your dad and you do as you are told.”
Jobs were impossible to come by so they came to a life-changing decision.
“My brother and I realised we could go down the easy road to do some not good things, or a hard road,” James says.
So they started an estate agents that now has around 100 staff in four offices.
“Who knows where I would have been?” he declares reflecting on how he has turned his life around. “Who knows if I would even be alive? I feel very lucky.”
After all that, James saw the show as a chance to resolve “the conflict in my mind about what sort of person I am”.
“You keep on listening to the devil and the angel on the other side and you are not sure which one you are.”
■ The final of SAS: Who Dares Wins airs on Channel 4 this Sunday at 9pm.