What it's REALLY like to be banged up if you're middle class: Businessman, 33, who was jailed for a £2million mobile phone scam shares his diary of a day behind bars - from 'prison Ocado' to spending 23 hours a day in his cell
A businessman from a 'typical, middle-class family' who was jailed for his part in a mobile phone fraud has revealed what life is really like behind bars.
Robert Morrison, 33, spent nine months in three different prisons after he was sentenced for his part in the £2million scam, which involved using students' personal information to obtain mobile phone contracts and unclaimed upgrades.
Speaking to FEMAIL, Rob explained his time 'inside', almost half of which was spent under lockdown for 23 hours a day, was a world apart from the quiet upbringing he and his brother enjoyed in leafy Berkshire.
'We had a very typical, comfortable, middle-class upbringing,' he said of his tight knit family. 'We weren't the wealthiest, we lived in a small rented cottage on farmland, but I never had to worry. I always had birthday presents and there was food on the table.'
Robert Morrison, 33, spent nine months in three different prisons after he was sentenced in 2017 for his part in the £2million scam, which involved using students' personal information to obtain mobile phone contracts and unclaimed upgrades. Pictured, Rob's mugshot
After graduating from Birmingham University Rob moved to London where he was recruited by a friend who had set-up a company that exploited a 'loophole' in the mobile phone networks in order to make money.
Feeling lost and struggling with his father's ill health, Rob, then in his mid-20s, was drawn to the promise of more time with his friends, even though he understood the business was not '100 per cent legitimate'.
And while senior members of the organisation lived the high life off the proceeds of the illegal business, Rob was earning the equivalent of £26,000 a year - the same amount he had brought home in his previous 'cushty' hospitality sales job - although he was not paid at regular intervals.
By the time the company's south-west London office was raided in 2014, it had grown to a 35-person operation and Rob had pushed fears of any repercussions for his actions far to the back of his mind.
After initially claiming he was innocent, Rob eventually pleaded guilty and in October 2017 was sentenced to two years and three months in prison. He served nine months before being released in 2018.
Now an independent personal trainer, Rob teamed up with twice-jailed former Bristol Rovers defender Mike 'Boats' Boateng and a prison lawyer named Claire to launch podcast Banged Up, where they share their experiences of life behind bars.
Here, in a first person account, Rob reveals what it was like to be arrested, sentenced, and spend time at Her Majesty's pleasure...
'IT WAS LIKE THEY WERE GETTING SADDAM HUSSEIN'
THE DAY I WAS ARRESTED
At 9.30am, the door to our serviced office got booted in and there were 20 police officers in full-on riot gear and army boots... like they thought they were taking out Saddam Hussein. We were told not to talk to each other or move.
Six hours later we got frogmarched out with our cuffs around our backs and taken to Charing Cross Police Station, where I was questioned. I was released at 2.30am.
At the time I had less than £1 to my name because there were cashflow issues in the business that meant I wasn't getting paid regularly. That morning I had walked 20 minutes to work and had left the flat planning to walk home that evening.
They had taken my phone and the only phone number I knew off by heart was my Dad's but I didn't want to phone him because he was sick. So I walked all the way back to Putney that night. It was over a year before I was charged.
'THE THOUGHT OF THE TRIAL HUNG OVER ME'
BEFORE I PLEADED GUILTY
The uncertainty of that period after I was charged and before I was sentenced was so difficult to deal with. At the start, I didn't know how long I was going to go away for, or if I was going to go at all. The uncertainty is really destabilising.
I was also not able to plan for the future or to start anything, whether it was a job or relationship, because I was like, "Well, what's the point? I might be in prison in a year's time".'
So at the same time as most of my friends were beginning to start families and to do quite well in their careers, I was there, in my early 30s, working in my mate's warehouse or doing a sales job for an interiors company, which I knew was never going to be my future.
The prospect of going to trial also lingered over me the whole time. I knew I was guilty, so the idea of going to court was really intimidating. It slowly built on me. I was going to these meetings with these lawyers and my barrister and I started to realise the size of the task ahead of me if I went to trial.
As soon as I changed my plea, and as soon as I knew what I was looking at in terms of a prison sentence, it became easier because I knew what I was facing.
I was sentenced in October 2017, more than three years after I was arrested.
'IT WAS LIKE WAITING FOR A ROLLERCOASTER TO START'
ARRIVING IN PRISON
Rob Morrison spent the first three months of his sentence at HMP Wandsworth, pictured, which was just a short drive from the flat he had rented in south-west London
After my sentencing, I went from Southwark Crown Court to Wandsworth Prison, which was just round the corner from the flat I'd moved out of three weeks before. When I was turning off to the prison I got a glimpse at my old building. It really sunk in then what was happening.
Wandsworth is an old-style Gothic prison. It's quite an intimidating building, exactly what you imagine a prison to look like, with big high walls. When we pulled in I remember looking out and thinking: 's***, I'm here'. The only thing I can compare it to is sitting on a rollercoaster and waiting for it to start. And I hate rollercoasters.
I was put in the holding cell with four mates because we were a conspiracy, which meant we had been sentenced together. We were chatting among ourselves but it's not like you're down the pub. You're sat there keeping your head down, you're trying not to make eye contact with people... you're trying to stay off the radar. I was also very conscious that we were the only five men in there in suits.
The first few hours really set the tone for the rest of my time in prison: you find out what's going to happen five minutes after it's happened. No one explains anything to you. You're bunged in a holding cell, then someone calls your name, you're taken out, they give you a prison number and from then on they use surname and number.
'IT'S A LOT LESS EXCITING THAN PRISON BREAK'
A TYPICAL DAY IN PRSION
Everyone wants to know what a typical day is like. But it's a lot more boring than TV shows like prison break makes it seem.
The day varied, depending on where I was. Life at HMP Wandsworth, where I was for the first three months of my sentence, and HMP High Down, in Surrey, where I was for a month, was straightforward because we were on 23-hour lockdown, which means you spend pretty much your whole day in the cell.
During that hour we were let out I used to go outside to the yard or take a shower. You typically couldn't do both.
Once I got to HMP Rochester, in Kent, I was busier because that was a working prison. That means if you're not unwell, you are expected to work in one of the prison jobs.
I usually woke up at 7am. I didn't have an alarm clock but I didn't need one because I didn't have curtains on my window so I tended to wake up quite early. I would shower in my cell and I had a kettle to make some breakfast, something like porridge oats with a bit of banana.
My door was unlocked just before 8am and I would go straight from the wing up to the gym, which was about a 50m walk. I had to be signed off the wing, which involved someone checking your badge and checking you were on a list, so you weren't just allowed to roam.
I worked as an orderly in the gym, so I was one of the people responsible for keeping the place tidy when other inmates came in to work out.
At around 11am-11.30am I would go back to the wing and collect my lunch on a tray, that was put out to us through a hatch. Think school dinners. Lunch was typically a sausage roll with a carton of apple juice and a biscuit. And that was it.
I was locked back up from 12pm-1.30pm. I would usually use the time to have a nap or - and Boats makes fun of me for this - watch Daily Politics on the TV.
Afterwards it was straight back up to the gym for the afternoon shift.
At 4pm the cell doors were unlocked to let everyone out to socialise. This is what's known as being 'open on the wing'. It gives you a bit more freedom but you're still not allowed to leave the wing.
Dinner was served at 4.30pm. That's your one hot meal of the day. Each week we'd fill out a meal form to choose what we'd like in advance. There were usually 4 or so options for each meal: a veggie option, a fish option and then two meat options.
Remember back at school dinners when they served you that one meal each week where you'd think 'I can't eat that?' It was that every day. A typical meal would be a stew and vegetables. It wasn't great food but I heard once their budget at the time for feeding each prisoner was something like £1.40 a day, so they had to make it stretch to three meals.
At 5pm I would be behind my door ready to be locked up for the night. As I quite like my food, I would often cook myself a second dinner at what I deemed to be a more normal time. And that was us for the night.
'I FOUND IT DIFFICULT TO MAKE SMALL DECISIONS'
LIFE AFTER PRISON
Rob is now a personal trainer and lives in London with his girlfriend Grace, above. He admitted speaking about his time in prison can feel like he's addressing the elephant in the room
I found it difficult being around people when I was released from prison. There is an element of you that becomes so used to the routine.
It is like clockwork, your door opens at 8am in the morning and shuts at 5pm at night, there is very little variation and I think I found it difficult readjusting to making these small decisions for myself like what time I wanted to go to bed.
Telling new people about my time in prison is slightly awkward but not a huge problem.
There were a couple of people I dated who were friends of friends and I thought 'they probably know' and then if they hadn't mentioned it, it was like the elephant in the room.
My general approach, rightly or wrongly, was to try and get it out there early doors, and then it was done. I think there is a little bit of awkwardness there but not too bad.
'WE WERE FULLY PREPARED FOR SOME BLOWBACK'
ON RELEASING THE PODCAST
Rob teamed up with twice-jailed former Bristol Rovers defender Mike 'Boats' Boateng and a prison lawyer named Claire to launch podcast Banged Up, where they share their experiences of life behind bars. Pictured, the trio during one recording session
We weren't trying to achieve anything with the podcast. There wasn't an end purpose to try and change the way people viewed prisoners, or anything like that.
It was very much that everyone I knew wanted to know what it was like in prison, when they came up to visit me in prison, when I met up with them afterwards. No one really seemed to know what went on, everyone's idea of prison seemed to be based on Prison Break or something that they'd seen on TV.
The truth is, the majority of life in prison is a lot more boring than people think.
We have all been completely blown away with the reaction. We honestly had no expectations for the podcast. To then have over to 160,000 downloads... It blows my mind.
We were aware prisons are a contentious subject and we were fully prepared for some blow back, especially as we had a light-hearted tone, that's just our style, but 90-something per cent of the reaction has just been really positive.
We think we're going to do a season two and we're trying to figure out what that looks like.
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