Bobby Cummines

A GANGSTER whose “firm” once ruled the streets of Islington and who went on to receive an OBE for his services to reformed offenders has died aged 74.

Robert “Bobby” Cummines was a notorious name that might once have been heard alongside the Kray Twins and Charlie Richardson in London’s criminal underworld of the 1970s.

But after years of armed robbery, extortion and racketeering and doing time in prison, Bobby turned his life around, earning an OBE from Queen Elizabeth in 2011 for his work teaching young people and ex-cons about the dangers of criminality.

In a statement posted on Bobby’s Instagram this week, his family said: “Writing this seems very, very surreal. Our darling, dearest Bobby was cruelly taken from us this week. The family, his fiancé and myself are all slowly coming to terms with it.”

They added that he was a “very special man who did so much for the youth and anyone who needed help”.

The youngest of eight children, Bobby was born in Islington to a family of “straight-goers” – as he described them – and allegedly turned to crime after being stitched-up by the police, getting a criminal record and losing his job.

In a video interview with LADBible Stories, he said: “I was gutted, I thought, ‘if you want me to be bad, I’ll show you how bad I can be’.”

His exploits began as a teenager, going after money that was owed to older gangsters in exchange for a 10 per cent cut, and he did his first armed robbery at around 16.

As he got older, Bobby and his firm – known as “The Chaps”, perhaps because he always dressed smartly – lorded over a territory from Highbury to Archway, to Finsbury Park and Caledonian Road, extorting (or “insuring”, as he put it) local businesses.

In 1978, he went to prison for manslaughter after a hostage died during an armed robbery.

Bobby later said that this person’s death affected him deeply because it should never have happened.

It was while in the notorious Parkhurst Prison that he allegedly mediated a dispute between crime bosses Reggie Kray and Charlie Richardson.

But it was also during his years in jail that Bobby changed his ways, leaning into education and turning his back on crime when he was released.

Instead, he began rehabilitating other ex-convicts – eventually becoming chief of the charity Unlock, which campaigns for equality for reformed offenders, and winning his OBE in 2011.

In 2014 he published his book, I Am Not A Gangster.

Tributes have poured in from friends, family, former mentees and other admirers since Bobby died.

The Romford Recorder has reported that he was seriously injured in a crash on Warley Hill, Brentwood on March 3 and passed away on March 5.