When I was a child most people didn’t give me a second thought. My mother and father, my teachers, social workers and care assistants all abandoned me in one way or another and, but for a one-off chance conversation with my probation officer, I would have ended up the way of most others in my situation – in a home or prison. Of that I am 100 per cent sure!

My English mother and Jamaican father had a terribly violent relationship which was carried out mainly in front of us kids. All four of us, one brother and two sisters, were placed in care and immediately separated, which was the well meaning but incredibly cruel ‘done thing’ in the early 1960s.

They claimed that there was no one out there who would foster me because I was a bully and a very naughty boy. They were right and with no one to guide me and always seeking attention, even if it meant I had to do something awful to achieve this aim, I went off the tracks. I began stealing at the age of nine, was expelled from three schools before the age of 12 and was the perfect villain in the making.

What I needed was simple but unobtainable: parents, ones who loved me. Instead I was the only kid left in the home at weekends. The few times I became fond of someone I always seemed to be moved on to another home. Left on my own, I suppose because of my wildness, I observed and learned along my journey through the juvenile courts. I taught myself to read and write at the age of 14. Curiously I also learned to read people’s body language, which has come in very handy particularly in business and my TV work, but that’s another story.

At 16 I was caught with a stolen ring and was told that with my juvenile record I would end up in prison if I committed one more offence.

I simply stopped there and then! I had seen the damage prison did to people, youths who went in as naughty boys and came out hardened criminals and I’d had enough of institutions. I saw a job advertised and went for an interview, even though I knew I had little hope with my record and the fact that I was still on probation. The interview didn’t go too well, but I was determined. I wanted the job so badly that I plagued the gaffer non-stop, and in the end he gave me the job just to shut me up!

I was put in charge of a milling machine and found that I could get on with the other workers and, better still, I was faster than anyone else at making door frames. The daily average was about 40 per person, but I wanted to knock up my earnings and was soon producing 100 plus a day! I was earning good money and decided to set up the first of my businesses which are still thriving today.

For years, thanks to my TV series Beat the Burglar, many people have asked me to produce the definitive book of anti-burglary tips. This had always been in my mind, but just like everybody else, I was so busy with work and family that I never would find the time. That is until my agent Sylvia got me in a vice-like grip and made me promise to pull together everything I knew about home security and said she would find a publisher.

True to her word she did and now I have the chance to really engage the reader with lots of cost-effective tips and eye-opening revelations which will tell you just how security conscious you are or are not! To help me get the message across I’ve teamed up with Britain’s best loved cartoonist, Bill Tidy MBE, and together we’ll make sure that the advice in the following pages is digestible but stays in the system.

The idea behind this book is not to frighten you into turning your home into a fortress! I won’t be suggesting jagged pieces of glass embedded in your walls and barbed wire atop your fences, but I will ram home to you the fact that for very little cost you can avoid becoming a victim of burglary. I will ask ‘how safe is your home?’ and offer the guidance to help you make your home safe instead of a target.

Burglars come in different categories, but are opportunist – they see an opportunity and seize it! This means they are looking for a weak target and you the home dweller can, by doing just a little such as closing your gate and adding a padlock to a shed door, demonstrate to the opportunist that you are security conscious. If your security awareness is highly visible then the opportunist will head somewhere where it isn’t.

I will provide you with an insight into how to recognise your property’s weaknesses, raise your awareness of what needs to be done and tell you how to do it.