A FORMER gangland hood has turned his back on a life of crime to help refugee kids in war-torn Iraq.
Reformed crook Tam Carrigan has swapped bank heists for humanitarian work after seeing first-hand the plight of the Kurdish people caught up in the war involving Isis.
The 53-year-old — who was jailed in 1991 for a botched armed robbery along with feared Scots gangster Ian “Blink” McDonald — has spearheaded a project to build a playground for children in Halabja on the Iraq-Iran border.
But despite his efforts to use his experiences growing up among violence and crime to help the kids in Iraq, some of the youngsters he’s worked with have signed up to fight against or even WITH Isis.
Tam, 53, of Springburn, Glasgow, says: “With the conflict in neighbouring Syria a lot of the kids have been sucked into that conflict.
“Some of the kids who we grew up with have joined Isis — some of them are very influenced by Isis.
“I don’t think they’ve betrayed me in any sense whatsoever.
“I think a lot of them have bought into the fantasies of what it’s like to be a warrior.”
Tam — who was first arrested aged just eight — adds: “I grew up listening to people talk and romanticise and fantasise about violence and I totally engaged with it.
“I know one of the lads who was with the play project at the start and is now a weapons instructor and trainer for the PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party).
“Others have joined the PKK and other armed groups across the region. It’s had a huge impact on the community in Balabja.”
Tam spent more than a decade behind bars for his role in the raid on a National Westminster Bank in Torquay, Devon.
But the former jailbird reveals he used his tough prison sentence to study for a sociology degree after he was inspired by a Buddhist Monk to follow a more “spiritual” path.
He says: “I was in a prison where people weren’t getting out.
“I knew if something didn’t change I would be stuck there forever.”
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As a youngster, Tam was sucked into a life of crime. From the age of eight he was in a gang in his native Springburn and spent a lot of his time
shoplifting and breaking into private properties.
By the age of 11, he’d stolen his first car — a Mini Cooper — and after a series of crimes he was sent to borstal at 17.
Tam was surrounded by career criminals — including his own dad, Thomas snr, who was locked up when his son was just five. The father-of-two says: “The men in my life that I was looking up to were violent criminals or petty criminals and some of them were the most notorious bank robbers coming out of Glasgow.
“I was stabbed for the first time when I was 15 and then I got slashed from the corner of my mouth to my left ear when I was 16 on Christmas Eve 1978.
“It was just normal, so many of my friends had been stabbed or cut.”
When he was released from jail in 2002, Tam gained a photography qualification and started planning a trip to the Halabja region, volunteering with the charity Kurdish Human Rights Project.
Tam had previously travelled to Turkey and Iraq, aged 23, where he’d taken photos to document the lives of Kurdish communities. At the time those
living in Halabja were still reeling from the 1988 chemical massacre — thought to have been ordered by Saddam Hussein — which killed thousands of Kurds.
Tam recalls: “They were a pull for me. People were being oppressed and physically exterminated. And the Kurdish people lived the same way I was
brought up. They were family-orientated and everyone looked after each other.
“Between 1988 and 1991, as well as committing armed robberies, I was going to the Iraqi border and the Syrian border photographing Kurdish refugees. I had my foot in two worlds — being a photojournalist and an armed robber. It was a mad existence.
“Many of the young people of Halabja have grown up with a deep sense of grief and injustice in the aftermath of the chemical attack by the Saddam Hussein regime.
“Many of the young men, in particular, feel that their future prospects of employment and opportunities to improve their lives are non-existent.”
But Tam believes he is the perfect example of how someone can change their path in life — just like he did after his wake-up call 25 years ago.
Tam and his pal Robert Harper were invited to join the bank robbery by ringleader Michael Healy, alongside McDonald, Michael Carroll and James Healy.
He was ordered to supply stolen cars and weapons and was supposed to be inside the vault to steal the cash — believed to be up to £3.5million.
The group went to Torquay six days before to plan the siege, but the plans were delayed and locals started noticing them acting suspiciously.
Tam was stopped by a traffic officer who ran his name and licence and told him he would remember him if anything happened “within a 100-mile radius”.
The raid was called off — but hours later some of the men changed their minds and decided to continue as planned without Tam and Robert.
But their heist was scuppered when the vault’s keyholder was late for work and they all fled empty-handed.
All six conspirators were found and arrested within a year and Tam, whose girlfriend had just given birth to a baby boy, was jailed after his
fingerprints were found on a map.
He says: “I’ve been through a lot of experiences, emotional and violent, but I’ve never felt anything like it.
“Being arrested and having a small baby — I felt my future come crashing down.”
Tam, who now also has a two-year-old daughter named Isla, adds: “Back then, I thought I would end up in prison, the army or possibly get killed.
“I’m living proof that anyone in my situation can change if you make that conscious decision. It’s never too late.”
TAM’S LIFE AND CRIMES
8 - Age at which he was first arrested
11 - e nicks his first car — a Mini Cooper
15 - Young lout is stabbed for first time
17 - Tam sent to borstal for his crimes
28 - He’s jailed for bank job with Blink in 1991
39 - Released as a reformed man in 2002
christine.lavelle@the-sun.co.uk
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