RICHARD LUBBOCK, UK COIN DEALER GONE BAD

From a ship sailing between Greenland and Iceland, Richard Lobel of London's Coincraft writes:

 

... Richard's bad memory isn't just down to old age; he's a drug addict and dealer who was responsible for Metropolitan Police's largest-ever haul of crystal meth once they had caught up with him at his east London penthouse flat. Expecting to find a hardened gangland boss, they discovered, instead, a skinny Jewish geek who liked classical music and war documentaries.

His story is just as insane as that of Breaking Bad's Walter White; a chemistry teacher who turns crystal meth manufacturer and gun-toting dealer when he discovers he has cancer and cannot pay for the treatment.

Richard was once a happily married Stanmore coin dealer with a gorgeous wife and privately educated son. But when his wife revealed she was gay – and he admitted that he was too – it led to him spiral out of control; drugs, bondage, dealing and eventually prison.

Five years ago, his son James bravely wrote a book about his father's story. Now it has been turned into a two-part series for Prime Video called, inevitably, Breaking Dad.

Richard had a conventional enough upbringing. His dad was rather strict but welcomed him into the family business of coin dealing. Richard was very good at it; people trusted him. He was good at picking up bargains and always carried a lot of stock – something that was to serve him well when he turned to drugs.

James remembers a happy traditional upbringing. His father was the softie in the family while his mother was the more volatile one. It was when he went to university that things changed.

Gradually, however, it became clear that Richard was taking drugs, a lot of drugs. He first started taking them while in nightclubs in Cape Town. As a shy man, still coming to terms with his sexuality, they afforded him the opportunity to be a more gregarious and charming version of himself – or at least he thought.

They became an important part of my life and I loved being on them, he says of the drugs. I am not going to pretend I was thinking every day about how I was going to give them up. I wasn't. He just about held on to his coin dealership, but after a violent robbery in his store, increasingly began to hate the job. And lost himself more in drugs.

Richard was jailed for eight years and spent half his sentence inside. He also lost his flat and his Rolls. He cleaned up his act and became a mentor and a teacher for young criminals. But he admits, for the first time, that within a few months of coming out of jail he was back on the crystal meth.

To read the complete article, see:
‘A few months after my release from prison I was back on the crystal meth': meet Britain's unlikeliest drug dealer (https://www.thejc.com/life-and-culture/a-few-months-after-my-release-from-prison-i-was-back-on-the-crystal-meth-meet-britains-unlikeliest-drug-dealer-qxvy8153)

To read the watch the trailer and full documentary, see:
Video: Meet the 'real life' Walter White: How middle-class father, 77, lived Breaking Bad lifestyle and became Britain's biggest crystal meth dealer before getting locked up in £1.5m bust (https://www.dailymail.co.uk/video/tvshows/video-3207601/Video-coins-drugs-Watch-Amazons-new-thrilling-crime-documentary.html)
Breaking Dad Britain's Unlikeliest Drug Dealer (https://www.primevideo.com/detail/Breaking-Dad-Britains-Unlikeliest-Drug-Dealer/0OZLJHTG7NEWGHGPM90F7UXY0Z)

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