Before ARC, Lloyd, now 33, was a drug addict who had been stealing since he was 15.
Lloyd Mitchell from Boston was a criminal. He stole, took drugs, and served prison sentences. It’s a life he had known since his teens. Nothing and nobody seemed to offer a way out — until ARC.
Assisting Rehabilitation through Collaboration (ARC) is a joint approach to dealing with prolific offenders and, as Lloyd’s story shows, it is changing lives in Lincolnshire.
Before ARC, Lloyd, now 33, was a drug addict who had been stealing since he was 15. He has a long and significant offending history, predominantly for shop lifting.
During his worst times, he would commit crime on a daily basis so he could buy heroin and mephedrone (a New Psychoactive Substance banned in 2010).
Whilst extensive and prolific, Lloyd’s offending never progressed to more serious crime such as robbery or burglary.
Lloyd let people down, lost people close to him and hurt his family time after time.
“An existence, not a life”
In and out of prison, unable to hold down permanent employment, periods of homelessness, he described this as “an existence, not a life.”
has a long and significant offending history, predominantly for shop lifting.
His own mum, a constant support to him, decided to stop lending him money. Lloyd explains why: “She didn’t want to give me the tenner that I would put in my arm; the tenner that would kill me.”
Lloyd needed drugs to function and to feel normal. Besides drugs, Lloyd cared about nothing.
He would walk out of shops with stolen goods under his arm, alarms ringing out, and he would be oblivious to everything but where he could get the money together to buy more drugs.
Surprising as it may be to some, he described his addiction to mephedrone as far more powerful than his addiction to heroin.
While the dangers of substance misuse are obvious, for Lloyd, who also has Type 1 diabetes, those dangers became magnified. But Lloyd didn’t care about getting caught, going to prison or the impact on his health. Only satisfying that immediate need for drugs was important.
Many would have seen Lloyd as a lost cause, someone who could not be helped or changed.
The turning point…
Lloyd was released from prison in July 2017 and has been working with ARC ever since. The scheme has helped him to turn his life around. Since this point Lloyd, has provided nothing but clear drugs tests to Addaction and has turned his back on a life of crime.
“I didn’t know what normal was.”
Now Lloyd can see a future and has a simple ambition that many people would take for granted. He would like a job. “My next goal is to get a car, get back to work, stand on my own two feet and earn some money.” This concept is new to Lloyd who throughout his adult life has known nothing but drugs. He explained: “I didn’t know what normal was.”
But it is not only the influence of ARC that Lloyd attributes his success to, it is also his family. “If it wasn’t for my mum and my sister, I wouldn’t be here.” Lloyd recognises the constant and overbearing worry he inflicted on them.
The only respite, when they didn’t fear for his safety or his life, being when he was in prison. He said, “they used to love it when I went to jail. It was like a holiday for them.” Lloyd is quick to point out that he had a good childhood and that there is nothing that explains or excuses his former life of addiction and crime. It is just something he fell into that became an unbreakable cycle.
“Every day was a chore. I would wake up; get money; get drugs.”
Lloyd’s message to others in this cycle is to cut ties with the people who are using and avoid any places you know there may be drugs. His advice is that if you don’t distance yourself from it, “you’ll never get away from it.” But, he says, “if I can do it, any one of them can do it.”
T/Sgt Phil Muirhead has been Lloyd’s case officer over the last year. He said, “I am immensely proud of Lloyd. He was an extremely heavy substance abuser and prolific offender with everything stacked against him; yet he has triumphed with the support of ARC. It is a credit to him that he has been presented so many opportunities to fail, but he has remained absolutely resolute.”
Sgt Phil Muirhead: My journey through ARC with Lloyd
Assisting Rehabilitation through Collaboration (ARC) is a joint approach to dealing with prolific offenders and, as Lloyd’s story shows, it is changing lives in Lincolnshire.
Lincolnshire Police Sgt Phil Muirhead
Lloyd’s case officer T/Sgt Muirhead explained the bespoke approach, “Essentially it is about breaking down barriers and finding out what the real issues are for that specific person. In Lloyd’s case we got Addaction on board and I took Lloyd to every appointment. I made sure that his mum was involved so she didn’t feel like anything was being hidden from her.
“I helped Lloyd into alternative accommodation – the rural location, in contrast with Boston, did not offer the same temptation to slip back into his old life. But in the end, it’s down to Lloyd – he has taken the opportunity and he has changed his life.”
Breaking down barriers: A case officer’s perspective
“ARC officers invest a considerable amount of time in relationship building with our clients and have to initially put quite a lot of effort into breaking down those barriers to move away from: ‘police officer and offender’ to one of: ‘supporting person and client’.
“This couldn’t be more true than with Lloyd; as initially ARC wasn’t too well known in the area and he was naturally sceptical of my agenda and whilst he signed to be a part of the ARC programme that level of trust hadn’t yet had time to develop, meaning; in the early days he would avoid me at all costs if he thought he was in trouble.
“Following Lloyd’s release from prison he chose to go to an address out in the middle of nowhere rather than returning to the drugs den that was his former home – this, I believe was his finest and most pivotal decision that he ever made and I had a lot of respect for him in making that call.
“Being out in the middle of nowhere Lloyd became reliant upon me to get him to his appointments and I ensured that I made the most of this valuable time with him by getting to know him better outside of appointments.
“Both Lloyd and I became invested in each other.”
“It’s fair to say that eventually both Lloyd and I became invested in each other; he could see the lengths that I would go to in delivering what I said I would and I could see the effort he was making in choosing the right decisions and trying to change his life and as time has evolved; so has the bond between us.
“From an ARC perspective and as a police officer with over 20 years’ service, Lloyd has shown me the true value of ‘working in partnership’ as well as what that phrase used so often, really means.
“He has shown me gratitude which I know is difficult for him to openly display, he has exhibited immense courage and resolve despite repeatedly being faced with adversity, he has demonstrated strength of character, he has opened up his life and allowed me to interrogate it, he has taught me that it can’t be about delivering a sterile service, but above all he has taught me the most valuable lesson — never give up on a client.
A caring bespoke service
“Of course it’s not just the relationship between police and client that is important but also the wider partnership family. It was important to me to get the message across to Lloyd that we were all invested in his future together and to that end spending time with him in company with our partners in their one to one meetings was crucial in delivering and demonstrating that message to him.
“Watching the way different agencies engaged with Lloyd was a huge learning curve for me also and helped me modify my own approach towards Lloyd. With Lloyd I was lucky enough to have a line manager and partners who were fully on-board and who are all so professional as well as offering such a caring bespoke service – it’s an accurate reflection on multi-agency working at its absolute best.
“Lloyd is a Type 1 Diabetic and has suffered with this debilitating autoimmune condition for most of his life and trying to balance Diabetes management with work potential has been a tricky conundrum of late.
“My 7-year-old son also has Type 1 Diabetes, he was diagnosed two years ago upon nearly losing him to it; so I’ve seen first-hand and over the last two years witnessed how incredibly difficult it is to manage. I guess that’s another reason why Lloyd and I have developed such a strong bond.
“Lloyd has freely admitted to me that he didn’t really care about his Diabetes before and would frequently run high (Hyperglycaemia), but now with some personal ARC investment, he takes it much more seriously than he did before and has better control.
“Clearly, Lloyd hasn’t in the past been fit for work and his mother has adopted more of a carers role for Lloyd which still continues to this day, but I’m pleased to say that owing to Lloyd’s lifestyle changes and Diabetes management we are hopeful of entering him into a local employers ‘back to work’ programme during the summer, which will be yet another milestone for him; by turning his disability into positive outcome.”
ARC is funded by a number of partners including the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC), Lincolnshire County Council, and Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust.
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There have been 51 new coronavirus cases and two COVID-related deaths in Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday — up from 41 cases and no deaths this time last week.
The government’s COVID-19 dashboard recorded 30 new cases in Lincolnshire, 19 in North Lincolnshire and two in North East Lincolnshire.
On Wednesday, two deaths were registered in Lincolnshire and none in Northern Lincolnshire. These figures include deaths both in and out of hospitals, as well as residents in hospitals outside the county.
NHS England has reported no new local hospital deaths at the four Greater Lincolnshire health trusts for the third day in a row this week.
On Wednesday, national cases increased by 2,396 to 4,395,703, while deaths rose by 22 to 127,327.
In local news, Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rate has fallen again since Monday, but still remains higher than the England average, which has also seen a fall.
West Lindsey and East Lindsey have both seen small spikes, but still remain some of the Greater Lincolnshire’s lowest infection rate districts.
Boston still tops the leaderboard in the region and has the 12th highest infection rate in the UK currently.
North Kesteven has one of the lowest rates in the UK and is under 10 per 100,000 of the population.
Here’s Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates up to April 21, according to the government dashboard:
Greater Lincolnshire’s infection rates from Apr 14 to Apr 21. | Data: Gov UK / Table: James Mayer for The Lincolnite
In national news, at least 100 fake coronavirus test certificates are used by UK arrivals every day, it has been revealed.
Border officials are forced to take travellers’ COVID test paperwork at “face value” and just accept results are negative – because they are often written in a foreign language, it has been revealed.
Lucy Moreton, professional officer for the Immigration Services Union (ISU), said travellers’ documents in anything other than English often simply had to be “taken on trust”.
Unemployment in the UK fell for a second month in February despite the COVID-19 lockdown, as employers stepped up preparations for the easing of restrictions this spring.
The Office for National Statistics said the unemployment rate fell to 4.9% in the three months to February, representing about 1.7 million people, in a modest improvement from 5% in the three months to January.
Coronavirus data for Greater Lincolnshire on Wednesday, April 21
Greater Lincolnshire includes Lincolnshire and the unitary authorities of North and North East (Northern) Lincolnshire.
59,148 cases (up 51)
41,165 in Lincolnshire (up 30)
9,349 in North Lincolnshire (up 19)
8,634 in North East Lincolnshire (up two)
2,187 deaths (up two)
1,614 from Lincolnshire (up two)
305 from North Lincolnshire (no change)
268 from North East Lincolnshire (no change)
of which 1,303 hospital deaths (no change)
811 at United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust (no change)
41 at Lincolnshire Community Health Service hospitals (no change)
1 at Lincolnshire Partnership Foundation Trust (no change)
450 in Northern Lincolnshire (NLAG) (no change)
4,395,703 UK cases, 127,327 deaths
DATA SOURCE — FIGURES CORRECT AT THE TIME OF the latest update. postcode data includes deaths not in healthcare facilities or in hospitals outside authority boundaries.
A four-bedroom party mansion in Boston, complete with a gym spa complex, cinema room and dedicated games room, is on the market for just shy of £1 million.
The property on Rawsons Lane has been listed for £995,000 by Fairweather Estate Agents, and boasts a jaw-dropping amount of flashy features.
As well as having four double bedrooms, five bathrooms and an open-plan kitchen living area, the house comes with a spa complex, complete with gym equipment, a gigantic hot tub and a sauna.
If that isn’t enough, there is also a cinema room with atmospheric LED spotlights, a games room with a built in bar, and a bespoke oak framed entertaining area outside.
The sheltered outdoor entertainment area comes with a built-in bar. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
So without further ado, this is what it looks like inside the enviable home:
The grand entrance hallway is incredibly spacious. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
The cinema room gives you the atmosphere of the pictures from inside your home. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
Anyone for a few frames of snooker? The games room has a bar in it too! | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
Dubbed an open plan ‘living kitchen’, it comes with Velux windows, tiled flooring and a granite island unit. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
The living room isn’t bad either, complete with two sets of triple sliding doors that lead to the patio. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
A hot tub fit for royalty! The spa complex has a giant jacuzzi in the middle as well as a gym area. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
If the gym and hot tub aren’t enough, how about a sauna too? | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
There are four double bedrooms in the house, plenty of space for guests or a large family. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
A dressing room for the master bedroom gives you plenty of wardrobe space. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
Free standing bath is matched with a double open-ended shower as well as his and hers wash basins. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
Another of the bedrooms, might need some blackout curtains at night, though! | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
A place to sit and soak in the sunshine. | Photo: Fairweather Estate Agents
Police are now investigating an incident of suspected arson after nine articulated trailers containing plastic pellets caught fire in a village near Gainsborough in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Lincolnshire Fire & Rescue were called to the incident on Learoyd Road in Hemswell Cliff at 3.50am on Wednesday, April 21. Crews from Gainsborough, Market Rasen and a water carrier from Holbeach attended, initially with crews from Kirton in Lindsey from Humberside Fire & Rescue.
The last crew didn’t leave the scene until over seven hours later at 11.20am. As it was suspected to be a deliberate fire the matter has now been referred on to Lincolnshire Police.
Dramatic photo of the scene of the fire at Hemswell Cliff. | Photo: Kirton In Lindsey Fire Station
Local residents were told at the time of the incident to keep windows closed, while drivers were advised to take care on the roads in the area due to poor visibility.
Productive evening observing @RAFWaddington exercise on a structural fire & planning future joint training with @LincsFireRescue then early start at Hemswell Cliff dealing with a no. of trailers on fire. Great work by crews & commanders on scene with incident now scaling down 👏🏻 pic.twitter.com/Vc4Kmn2fLO