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‘A few months after my release from prison I was back on the crystal meth’: meet Britain’s unlikeliest drug dealer

A film about a north London grandfather caught with the Metropolitan Police’s largest-ever crystal meth haul is out this week

June 11, 2024 17:38
BREAKING_DAD_ Richard Lubbock smoking cigarette-a
Ravaged by drugs: Richard Lubbock
7 min read

In many ways Richard Lubbock is your typical north London Jewish granddad. He has a penchant for flash cars (a golden Rolls-Royce at one point) and sunny holidays, a therapist on speed dial. He loves a bargain, could spend hours kvelling about his son and more than once forgets the question you’ve just asked him.

But Richard’s bad memory isn’t just down to old age; he’s a drug addict and dealer who was responsible for Metropolitan Police’s largest-ever haul of crystal meth once they had caught up with him at his east London penthouse flat. Expecting to find a hardened gangland boss, they discovered, instead, a skinny Jewish geek who liked classical music and war documentaries.

His story is just as insane as that of Breaking Bad’s Walter White; a chemistry teacher who turns crystal meth manufacturer and gun-toting dealer when he discovers he has cancer and cannot pay for the treatment.

Richard was once a happily married Stanmore coin dealer with a gorgeous wife and privately educated son. But when his wife revealed she was gay – and he admitted that he was too – it led to him spiral out of control; drugs, bondage, dealing and eventually prison.

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film