Want the best Coventry and Warwickshire news delivered straight to your inbox? Sign up here! Sign up here! Thank you for subscribing See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Tasting freedom for the first time after serving two-and-a-half years for armed robbery, Ben Kearney could easily have lapsed straight back into crime.

Walking out of the gates at HMP Glen Parva to serve the remainder of his five-year sentence on licence, he found himself with £50 in cash and no firm employment options.

On the face of it, a newly-released offender with 30 convictions including robbery, drink driving and travelling in a stolen vehicle would be toxic to most potential employers.

“You’re released from prison with fifty pounds in hand, but that’s lost in two days, and even if you do find work you have to work two weeks or a month in hand,” Ben says.

“If you’re a known thief, what are you going to do?”

Not everyone had given up on the ex-convict, however.

The chairman of Pinley Rugby Club, Simon Nicholls, found his former player a job as a labourer with Springworth Building and Interiors. Ben repaid Simon’s faith, spending four years mucking in on building sites across the West Midlands before realising his ambition to be his own boss by starting Kearney Construction.

Crime touched Ben’s life again, this time with tragic results, when his school friend Daniel Kennell was murdered. Daniel, from Wyken, was stabbed to death on July 8, 2018, at the age of 27.

Ryan Preston, also 27, was found guilty of murder following a trial at Warwick Crown Court in January 2019 and jailed for life.

Refusing to be consumed by bitterness, Ben joined Daniel’s family in setting up the Daniel Kennell Foundation, a charity working to tackle violence and knife crime in Coventry.

He also continued working towards his goal of giving serving and newly-released prisoners the chance to make the transition to a normal working life in the outside world.

Since launching Second Chance Recruitment at the turn of 2020, Ben has added 300 serving and newly-released offenders to his books.

In a major coup, a meeting with the Prison Service has paved the way for the ex-con to go into prisons across the Midlands to speak with inmates and begin matching them with employers ahead of their release. Wearing a branded jacket and holding a folder packed with leads and notes, the self-starter, 28, from Wyken, cuts a driven figure as he chats over a coffee in CoventryLive’s office.

“You do courses in prison,” he explains. “But then you go and seek work yourself and there is that stigma of having a criminal record and the fear of rejection. The idea behind Second Chance Recruitment is that we will see you in prison. On the day you’re released you can have a day with your family and the day after you’re in work, earning money again. There’s no time to drift.”

So far, 300 people have contacted Ben in search of work.

Key selling points for Second Chance Recruitment include the company carrying out risk assessments on candidates and matching them with what employers will or will not accept.

As well as being matched with potential employers upskilling is also being made available through a training facility in Coventry.

“They are crying out for work,” Ben says of people with criminal convictions.

“They haven’t given up, they’ll do anything, it’s just the fear of rejection and I know exactly how that feels. There’s no reason why they can’t work and move on with their lives but they won’t get a positive future if they aren’t given a chance.

"This is a business but we’re not just doing this to make a couple of quid, we’re here to change lives, and as long as that’s happening, I’m happy with that.”

'My life behind bars'

(Image: Western Mail and Echo Copyright)

Ben Kearney admits he was a “naïve, stupid” teenager who wanted to emulate gangland figures with fearsome reputations.

Aged 18, he was sentenced to five years behind bars for armed robbery, which followed shorter stretches in custody for drink-driving and allowing himself to be carried in a stolen vehicle.

He spent half the sentence at Glen Parva, then an adult prison and young offenders institution in Leicestershire, before being released on licence, walking out of the gates feeling hungry and with £50 in his pocket. Behind bars, Ben avoided trouble by using his people skills and keeping a low profile.

“It’s all about who’s got the biggest mouth,” he says.

“I’m not a big tough lad but I can win people round to my side. I was fine the whole way, I never had any trouble and I held my own.”

The inmate started to see the error of his ways and the birth of his two children was another catalyst.

“I had a good upbringing in Westwood Heath but I chose the wrong path,” he says. “I was a naive, stupid kid. I saw other people with a reputation and I wanted one. If it hadn’t been for those five years I would be in a much different place now, but I’ve always been a self-starter and I can understand what people in prison are going through.”

Glen Parva, which has since being closed awaiting a complete rebuild, was not the university of crime that prisons are often painted as, with inmates having access to courses in skills such as forklift driving, carpentry and bricklaying, Ben says.

However, the reformed character found a huge disconnect with the outside world.

“When you get out it’s not as easy as walking into somewhere and presenting a certificate,” he says.

“The idea behind Second Chance Recruitment is that you have a bridge between the prison system and a potential employer as well as the chance to receive more training if you need it. While ex-offenders will not be on great wages to start they have the chance to show their worth and move up the ranks. When you think about the fast cash you might earn through, say, a bank robbery, it might only add up to a fiver a day over a few years once you count the time in custody or losing out to other criminals who will all know you have the cash and want to take the money off you.

“I didn’t start on loads of money, I was on minimum wage, but I persevered and I knew where I wanted to be. Many prisoners are the same, they are grafters who just need that final bridge into mainstream society.”

‘In that split second, your life’s gone’

(Image: Getty Images)

The spectre of knife crime has continued to claim young lives in Coventry, with Ben’s friend Daniel Kennell among a growing roll call of victims.

At the start of February, Babacar Diagne, 15, became the latest victim after he was stabbed to death in Wood End. After Daniel’s tragic death, Ben joined with Daniel’s mother, Mandy, and other relatives, friends and supporters to set up the Daniel Kennell Foundation.

“It’s ridiculous at the minute,” Ben says.

“It’s kids killing kids and I don’t understand where the mindset is coming from. I speak to Dan’s mum, Mandy, every day, and I can’t explain how devastating it is for her to see what’s going on. Kids see how it can affect someone’s mum, but they still go out and do it. It’s stupid, there’s no respect for other people’s lives or for their own lives.

“I’ve seen someone come back off the bus from court who’s got thirty years and it’s not a pretty sight. For that split second decision, your life’s gone, there’s no words for it.”

In England and Wales, 29 per cent of adult and juvenile offenders reoffend after being released from custody, according to official figures.

“Two-and-a-half years in prison was more than long enough,” Ben says.

“But this is where people can relate to me because I can talk to them about their prison experience – I could possibly have been in the cell next to some of these people.

"There are places where former prisoners can go to get employment, but you feel like you’re being judged and they don’t understand how to deal with your past. We’ll sit you down and talk to you about prison life, or if you’re not comfortable, you don’t have to talk about it.”

CoventryLive WhatsApp CoventryLive has launched a WhatsApp service dedicated to keeping you up to date with the latest news from Coventry and Warwickshire. Click here to join and follow the instructions on your phone. Your number won't be shared with anyone else in the group. If you want more information on signing up, or if this link doesn’t work, click here.

Ben is now in the process of preparing to take Second Chance Recruitment into Midlands prisons as he expands his portfolio of candidates and employers.

“I was a nightmare as a teenager, and I know how hard it is when you are released into the real world with fifty quid in your pocket,” he says.

“It lasts you two days and then you’re struggling and go and commit a crime. My aim is that you have a day with your family and then you're working.

"I will tell people that they have to be realistic and they won’t earn a thousand pounds in a day, but they won’t be back in jail.”

To get in touch with Second Chance recruitment email: info@2ndchancegroup.co.uk