Former Sheffield nightclub owner and ex-drug dealer Mick Hartley is almost six years clean. Here he tells Andy Kershaw his remarkable story, from addiction to running a successful recovery charity
“I was brought up on the Gleadless estate by my mum, who wouldn’t tell me who my real dad was until I was 12. Once he knew she was pregnant, he was off, and I didn’t meet him or my four previously unknown stepbrothers until I was 27,” Mick said.
Mick experienced long periods of exclusion until he left school and drifted into a series of ‘dead-end’ jobs, before he got drawn into further criminal activity and drug use. This led Mick into early brushes with the law and time in court with sentences varying from probation to community service, fines and custody.
“I was arrested for shoplifting and assaulting a police officer as a teenager, after breaking into my school to rob the tuck shop.
“I was given the opportunity to go onto a Youth Training Scheme doing landscape gardening and I was paid £27 a week. This only lasted a few months because I then got a job at a local Co-op Dairy, pasteurising milk.”
“I got a job at a local dairy, but ended up robbing it and got 12 months in prison, all to feed my addiction”
“After working there for six weeks, I decided to rob it one night and got caught. I spent my 17th birthday at HMP Armley in Leeds awaiting sentence and ended up in prison for 12 months.”
Over the next decade Mick became more involved in dealing drugs and was introduced to supplier contacts in Liverpool.
“I began selling cannabis, LSD, and amphetamines in considerable quantities to fund my habit and pay my bills by dealing actively at clubs like Bed, The Music Factory and Occasions in Sheffield.”
When he was 26, Mick was introduced to cocaine and this led to him becoming what he describes as a ‘high functioning addict’. “I started working as a bouncer due to my muscular build when I left prison at 27, and I worked the doors until I was 43.”
Mick set up his own nightclub and bar in Sheffield in 2002, called The Ruby Lounge – Cellar 35.
“I used drugs heavily, but my successful businesses meant the money never ran out.
Over the next five years my life became unmanageable, and I became powerless to cocaine.”
Inevitably, this lifestyle led Mick into more contact with the police and more time in prison, fines, and community sentences.
“Over the years I’ve been arrested for assaulting a police officer, GBH and ABH, commercial burglary, possession with intent to supply Class ‘A’ drugs, dangerous driving and tendering counterfeit money – all caused by my addiction. I’d done four prison sentences between the ages of 16 and 26.”
“I’d lost everything – cocaine always came first”
By the age of 45, Mick had reached rock bottom.
“I’d lost my sanity, my partner, five-year-old son and friends, the businesses, savings, the lot – cocaine always came first,” Mick said.
“I entered Arc House rehabilitation clinic in Scarborough, who put me on the right track and gave me the tools I needed to get clean after attending hundreds of meetings with various anonymous fellowships. I’m now celebrating almost six years’ abstinence from drugs and alcohol.”
Mick decided that the best way to repay society and help others get clean was to establish Kickback Recovery, a peer-led support network to make recovery from addiction more easily accessible and sustainable in the local community.
More than 2,000 people leave drug and alcohol rehab clinics in Sheffield every year with little support to help them sustain or support their recovery.
“If we can help people stay off drugs, support them to recover their physical and mental health and become positive members of the community, that’s a ‘win-win’ for us, the NHS, the police, the criminal justice system and society as a whole,” Mick said.
The services provided by Kickback Recovery Community CIO have grown enormously over the last 18 months, with 22,000 followers worldwide on social media including a closed group of over 3,000 weekly regulars.
Kickback Recovery now runs a two-hour in-person therapy group at The Circle on Rockingham Street in Sheffield, along with three zoom therapy groups and 11 one-to-one clinics every week.
They have had 2,573 attendances since August last year and provided over 3,000 hours of telephone support with 37 dedicated volunteers giving more than 650 hours of their time to the project.
“We’ve been able to meet in groups of up to 15 throughout the pandemic and using technology like Zoom we’ve been able to deliver services in a new and innovative way to people who need it,” says Mick.
“I regret every minute I spent on drugs and in prison, but it has given me a unique perspective into how addiction destroys lives and the benefits of recovery.
“I’m always willing to speak about my remarkable journey and the critical work we’re doing, and I’m hoping that Sheffield businesses will support us.”
If you would like to become the CSR partner for Kickback Recovery Community CIO in Sheffield or book Mick Hartley as an inspirational, motivational speaker please contact kickbackrecoverycommunity@outlook.com. Mick Hartley is the Founder and CEO at Kickback Recovery Community CIO. Charity No 1185300 Company No CE018826
