A father who will celebrate “eight years free” from prison this year has said he is “loving” life after setting up a lucrative refuse disposal business called The Waste Man. Eddie McGinty, 44, from West Drayton, had been in and out of 14 juvenile and adult prisons since the age of 15, for crimes ranging from petty theft and drug dealing to intimidating witnesses and carrying out ram raids.
But while Eddie was serving time at HMP Ford, he decided to turn his back on crime after striking up a relationship with his now-wife Louise, 43, who owns a flower shop in West Drayton and communicated with him in prison through a smuggled mobile phone. Two days after being released on March 10 2017, Eddie went to work for Louise as a delivery driver and “never looked back” – before setting up his own waste removal company called The Waste Man, which earns him more than £250 a day.
Eddie, who has seven children aged three, seven, 11, 14, 15, 21 and 24, now leads a “normal” life and has shared his “recovery journey” in the hope of preventing others from becoming “wastemen” and making the same mistakes. “All in all, I’ve spent 15 years and one month in a closed prison,” Eddie told PA Real Life.
“If I hadn’t met Louise, I would most likely still be in prison or committing crimes. I feel great being normal, I’m trusted now… and I don’t have armed police kicking off my front door and shoving their guns in my face.”
Speaking about the anniversary coming up this year, he added: “On March 10, I’ll be eight years free. I’m very happy that I actually finally decided to change my mindset. Eight years free, I’m loving it.”
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Eddie became involved in criminal activity from a young age. “We grew up on a council estate if you want to call it that, and there were a lot of kids doing stupid things on the street,” said Eddie.
“I followed the older boys’ path on the estate and started off petty, just shoplifting and nicking things.” He would meet up with boys from other areas for one-on-one street fights and soon, Eddie had made a name for himself.
“It wasn’t like today where you go and stab each other,” he said. “I used to do that regularly and I wasn’t losing, so it was giving me more of a reputation.
“When I look back on my life now, I think that’s where it was all going wrong.” Aged 14, Eddie was placed in a children’s home in the Welsh countryside, but said by that time he “didn’t care about authority”.
“They couldn’t handle me, so I was then sent to a London children’s home in Kings Wood, near Croydon,” he continued. A year later Eddie got his first taste of prison when he was sent to Feltham Young Offenders Institution after intimidating a witness in another trial.
“I soon realised that Feltham was a dangerous place,” he said. “I became hard overnight – Feltham changed me… I went from that naughty little kid to being (a real criminal).
“Then, when I left Feltham, I was soon back in Feltham, and my crimes escalated very quickly. Feltham made me into something I would probably have never been.”
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By 17, Eddie was back on the street and involved in drug dealing, first cannabis and then later cocaine. “The older boys would hand pick who they wanted working for them and I ticked all the little boxes to go down that road,” Eddie added.
Soon firearms were added to the mix and Eddie started carrying out “armed robberies, ram raids and breaking into office blocks”. A few years after being released from Feltham, Eddie said he was “nicked” for an armed robbery and sent to HMP Belmarsh.
“This time I didn’t come out for seven years,” he said. Eddie went on to serve another two sentences for a variety of crimes, spending a total of 15 years and one month behind bars.
On several occasions after being released, Eddie said he tried turning his life around and getting a job, but failed because he was legally obliged to disclose his criminal past. “I was like, ‘nobody is going to give me a job if I tell them the truth’,” he said.
“When I told them where I had been and what I had been to prison for, they would say there are no jobs and that’s how it went for a couple of months. I thought, mind my language, ‘f*** this’, and went straight back to what I know how to do best – sell drugs, commit crimes.”
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Overall, Eddie served time in five juvenile prisons and nine adult jails, including HMP Belmarsh, HMP Wormwood Scrubs, HMP Parkhurst, HMP Albany, HMP Lewes, HMP Whitemoor, HMP Swaleside, HMP The Mount and HMP Ford. But during his last sentence at HMP Ford, five years for a series of commercial ram raids, Eddie managed to break the cycle with the help of his now-wife Louise.
“I don’t know what happened. I was laying on my bed one night and I thought, ‘you’re better than this’,” he said. Eddie said he thought about some of his friends who were now serving life sentences for murder and wondered how long it would be before he joined them.
Around the same time, he had started messaging Louise, who he knew from primary school, on a smuggled mobile phone and the pair rekindled their friendship. As it was an open prison, Eddie was allowed out on day release, and after several dates the pair made their relationship official.
Before Eddie was released on Friday, March 10 2017, Louise suggested he work in her flower shop, Funky Flowers, in West Drayton. “I got out of jail on the Friday and on Monday, I was working for her,” he said.
“That was nearly eight years ago now, and I’ve never looked back. My whole life changed.” Eddie worked for Louise for four years as a delivery driver before starting his own business.
“She was a good role model – she was a role model that I never had,” he said. Inspired by his criminal past, Eddie decided to launch a waste removal company and call it The Waste Man in 2021.
“I get up in the morning, I go out in my van and I have a list of jobs,” he said. “You ring me and say, ‘Eddie, I’ve got a pile of rubbish in my front garden’.
“You send me a picture and I quote it straightaway over the phone.” The business earns Eddie more than £250 a day and he said local residents now “trust him”.
“Now my brain is all about trying to get the next best deal on a rubbish job,” he said. “My main aim is to be cheaper than a skip, and we are, so it works.”
Eddie said he still gets the occasional phone call from criminal gangs, but he is no longer interested. To help other inmates escape a life of crime Eddie has shared his story on social media and is regularly invited to give talks in schools and prisons, some of which he did time in.
Asked why he decided to call his company The Waste Man, he said: “I thought it would be catchy… because I have openly admitted that I’ve wasted my life in jail and you are called a wasteman by straight people.” To find out more about Eddie and his work, search @thewasteman.uk and @emcgintymyrecoveryjourney on Instagram.
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