From Officer to Inmate : Vincent Marks
Vincent Marks came from a military family. His father was a Marine so Vincent, his two brothers and his parents moved from place to place in military housing to accommodate his father’s occupation. His father was absent most of the time due to work commitments. His mother was not what he would describe as maternal, the three boys did not attract their mothers love or attention. Vincent sought the limelight and the recognition, even the approval of others.
As a youngster, Vincent got into all sorts of scrapes and was mischievous. Aged just 16 years old he was spending most of his time with a girlfriend, the love of his life, if that’s possible at such a tender age. He was devastated when they parted company and their relationship was over. Vincent saw more of his friends now he didn’t have the distraction of a partner. They were caught up in petty theft, drinking and recreational drugs. He deemed these behaviours as innocuous, but his father had a different view of his antics.
Vincent’s father took him to the local military careers office, well, as Vincent describes it, he ‘frogmarched’ him there. He realised that the Royal Air Force was his likely route to adulthood and a more useful member of the military rather than society. He applied, he was successful and he joined the Service. The initial training didn’t pass easily for Vincent, the written examinations were difficult and challenging, so he was very relieved when, after the longest six weeks of his young life, he stood at his passing out parade, proud in his uniform. His parents were delighted at his achievement and Vincent seemed to have found those that gave him a sense of purpose, enjoyed his company and even laughed at his jokes.
In the coming years he met Denise, a civil servant working for the Ministry of Defence. But their lives thus far had been very different. Denise was 37 years old with four children, she was separated but still married to a serving RAF Sergeant. Vincent was just 19 years old, he was, by his own admission, strong-willed, stubborn and arrogant.
Vincent served for six years in the RAF but in late 1995 decided he was going to rebel against the rules and regulations that had been part of his life for so long. He left the RAF at the age of 22. A massive decision but he hadn’t even mentioned it to Denise let alone canvas her thoughts or discuss the implications of such a life changing move. It was still in the early days of their relationship, less than two years in and they weren’t living together, so he made the decision alone and within weeks walked out of the military. He went to live with a friend, Chris, who had left the RAF at the same time and they both gained employment at a supermarket warehouse.
The move to civilian life was not easy. The work processes of the supermarket were strange and to Vincent, made no sense. The managers were ineffectual. The non management staff were too afraid to give their opinion whereas he was vocal, very vocal, so he was labelled a troublemaker. He and Denise were still together and their relationship had become far more serious. She was now divorced and living in a housing association house with three of her children. Life’s next decision, time to get out of the supermarket and find something more suitable. He would remain working there, he still had bills to pay, until he found the change he was looking for.
Vincent went looking for employment with structure and security. He craved the attention he had had as a military man, the sense of belonging, the camaraderie, he wanted to be a popular member of a team, he wanted the respect of others, the lack of such positive feelings made him feel paranoid. He then spotted an advertisement in a local newspaper, Thames Valley Police were recruiting. He thought this could be it as he sought that level of security that a uniform brought to him. Vincent sent in his application and survived the paper sift and went through the selection process over a number of weeks. It was the Summer of 1996, he was full of confidence but at the last hurdle he fell, his interview with two senior officers was not the resounding success he had expected. They informed him his application to join the Thames Valley Police had failed and he should re apply in six months. He did reapply, but whether discouraged or disheartened by his previous experience he failed on his level of fitness and did not progress to the selection stages he had successfully completed previously. Sohe was to remain at the supermarket.
Vincent considered re-enlisting in the RAF but after discussing the idea with Denise he decided that his military career was over and a return would not be the answer. By December 1996 the living arrangements with his friend became strained and Chris moved to London to start a new job leaving Vincent to carry the burden of the cost of the accommodation alone. So in February 1997, Vincent finally moved in with Denise and the children. It wasn’t the easiest of transitions but both would be delighted when Denise found out she was pregnant, she was 41 years old and the health risks of a pregnancy were much higher. Happily, on 6th December 1997, their daughter Holly was born. Vincent was such a proud Dad.
With the responsibility of being a new Dad, he had to look at his employment, the supermarket was still not his answer, so where to look now? He still craved the stability and respect that he believed a uniformed occupation would afford him. Then he saw it, the Prison Service was recruiting, he did not hesitate to apply and was invited to the selection process. Within weeks he was informed he had been allocated a place on the training course. This was it, a move to a uniformed occupation. He would have the security he craved, the respect he felt he deserved and he could throw the towel in at the supermarket. He was back on top - wasn’t he?
The training and placements at his chosen prison were a real change to his working life. Vincent knew that there were ex-military personnel employed in the prison system. He looked forward to meeting like minded individuals, his expectations were high. But as he worked through his training and integrated into the prison system, those expectations were not met. Those ex military types were either, as Vincent describes, retired military or failed military. His colleagues weren’t as enthusiastic as he was and would, it appeared, rather spend time sitting in the office drinking tea and reading newspapers than going out on the landings and integrating with the inmates. When he had passed his training and was allocated to his chosen prison he took all that he had learnt with him. He carried out his job as he had been taught but the reality was different to the training. Regular activities such as the search of a prisoner was not carried out as per the training, a search became merely a pat down. Time was tight and resources were inadequate so corners were cut. He found himself spending more and more time with the prisoners and less and less with his work colleagues. Vincent still had that need to be liked, to be popular, he had felt this throughout his childhood with a less than interested mother and an absent father. He found that approval in the military. He expected to rediscover it when in another uniformed disciplined job, but that wasn’t the case. So he mixed with those who fed the ego that wanted that recognition. He found it amongst the inmates.
There were a select few trusted inmates referred to as ‘Redbands’ who were allowed more freedom around the prison as they engaged in their cleaning duties. They were called Redbands because they wore a red armband to identify them as they engaged in their work in the prison. The Redbands knew exactly how to pander to Vincent, they found out his weaknesses and exploited them. He was so naive, he didn’t realise he was being ‘conditioned’ by this small number. They laughed and joked together, he was one of the lads; wasn’t he?
Then came a change in the way he was spoken to by the Redbands. Whispers in his ear, we know where you drink, we know the pub you frequent, we know where you live, we know what car you drive, we know you have a young daughter, we know where she is. Had he inadvertently given them this information, dropped his guard or had they discovered it from their own sources? Unnerved by the veiled ‘threats’ he became unsettled, his attitude and behaviour changed at home, stress was put on his relationship with Denise and the family.
Then he was told by the Redbands that drugs were coming into the prison via visitors and other prison officers, he was told he should do that too, be part of it, one of the lads. He refused, but one day after a shift he went to the car park to his car for the journey home. His car was an old model with several issues, the main one being one of the doors didn’t lock, so the car was always left insecure.There was a package on the passenger seat, he knew that this was a drugs drop that he was expected to deliver it to the inmates in the prison. Shaking, he drove home, pushing the package under the seat so that it wouldn’t be discovered or on view.
The following day he disposed of the package and when asked by the Redbands, he said he would not bring drugs into the prison. Vincent thought or hoped his firm refusal would suffice but some time later he again returned to his car to find a package on the passenger seat. His thoughts raged through his mind and he wrestled with what to do. There was no one he could turn to, no one he trusted to help, he had to deal with this alone. So he made the decision he would take the package in just this once and then he would tell them he would not be doing it again - that was his solution.
However, by delivering a drug package into the prison, he had played into the Redbands hands. ‘You have to do it again, otherwise we will tell on you, you did it on a previous occasion.’ Vincent was trapped and he didn’t know how to escape.
Vincent once again came to drive home after a shift, he saw yet another package on the driver’s seat - Groundhog Day. He drove home and left the package in the car out of sight. He had very little sleep and decided on his journey back into work the following morning he would take the package into the prison, this would be the last one, the last time and then he would find a way out of the mess he was in. He parked in the prison car park, the drugs, cannabis, were in his lunch box. He alighted the car and made his way toward the Gate Lodge to enter the prison. As he did so, two men approached him, they asked if he was Vincent Marks, which he confirmed. They introduced themselves as officers from the Metropolitan Police Anti Corruption Squad and arrested him for conspiracy to supply a controlled drug. He was asked if he had anything he shouldn’t have, he told them about the package and its contents and where it was. The officers recovered it and Vincent was duly transported to the Police Station. Initially, he saw this as his way out, someone to tell what had been going on.
Unfortunately, Vincent was now caught up in the Criminal Justice System not as someone who served within it but one who was to be dealt with by it. It transpired on 14th May 1999 his car was being surveilled by covert officers and an individual had been seen to drive into the car park, alight his own car and approach Vincent’s insecure parked car. After a few minutes the individual returned to his own car and drove off. The officers then waited the following morning for Vincent’s return to work, anticipating that the package that was left in his car by the individual would find its way into the prison itself.
A charge of conspiring to take 3 ounces of cannabis into the prison was put to Vincent, in court he admitted the charge and asked that three other similar offences be taken into consideration. On his first court appearance he appeared with four other co accused, he had never seen any of these individuals before. He didn’t know them, but presumed they were the ones on the outside facilitating the ‘drops’. He never saw them after that first court appearance.
When the matter was committed to the Crown Court, Vincent pleaded guilty, he did not want the matter to go to trial. The Judge remanded him into custody and so he was sent to prison ahead of his sentencing hearing in the Crown Court. In October 2000, he was sentenced to three and a half years imprisonment. And so started his incarceration.
Vincent Marks was released in August 2001, he was electronically tagged.Denise and Vincent were married but later divorced. His actions were costly to him and his family, the most regret he has is that his daughter Holly has not had contact with him since she was thirteen years old, as we interviewed Vincent she is now 28 years of age. He doesn’t shy away from the decisions he made and the consequences that resulted. He knows he made choices that were wrong and he knows no one else is to blame for making those choices.
