CRIME is a dead end career - your freedom is priceless.

These are the defiant words of a Southend campaigner who has spoken of his involvement in organised crime as a teenager to deter others from going down the same path.

Sonny Green, 26, turned to organised crime alongside some of his peers while he was a student at Cecil Jones in Southend, as a way of making money.

Despite the criminal activities in the past, Sonny is now working to help educate and guide other teenagers away from crime and help encourage them to earn money legitimately.

He said: “I was involved in organised crime as a teenager and it was only through music and a TV/film career that I managed to find a way out and began to turn my life around.

“We now run a project called Music Mentoring and Trouble Tongues which empowers at-risk teenagers through music and arts.

“We find a lot of young people involved in crime want a chance to earn legitimate money now.

“Unfortunately those opportunities are just not there. However, we have had success with young people selling their old clothes and parents’ unwanted items on ebay.

“We also have found them Saturday jobs etc but they are very hard to find and most employers are put off due to insurance policies, legislation and red tape.

Sonny created a YouTube video to share his view that until young people are offered a legitimate way of earning money, there will always be youth violence.

Sharing the video on social media, Sonny said that a lot of those who were aged 12-16 stopped committing crimes when they were 17-18-plus and were able to get employed, got jobs, or were able to access social support.

Children across Southend have been exposed and recruited to sell drugs, with dealing outside schools.

Concerns were raised back in 2019 about alleged crimes outside a Southend school where it was feared children were being recruited to sell cocaine and heroin.

Parents have also spoken out about their children’s own experience in being groomed by drug dealers.

In 2018, a devastated mother was forced to leave her home after her 13-year-old son was exploited by drug dealers. He had come home with a Kinder egg full of crack cocaine and heroin, petrified and in tears. He had been beaten up and robbed outside his home.

Sonny created his video to raise awareness of what children desperate for cash are being exposed to in Southend and hopes his video will spark the a conversation on teenagers being given the opportunity to make money legitimately.

He said: “A Zoom call with youth workers, professors and doctors from across London and the South East about the work we do prompted me to make the video.

“I’m hoping the video on ‘The Spiritual Englishman’ will spark the conversation around how teenagers in secondary school can earn money legitimately.”

Sonny is now asking employers to get in touch if they can give young people a Saturday job.

Sonny added: “I think that employment and opportunities to earn legitimate money as a teenager will have a massive impact on getting young people out of crime.

“Is it right to treat 14/15/16 year olds like children? Because by not giving them opportunities to earn legitimate money that’s what we’re doing.”

“It’s extremely important that we get children off the streets and out of crime. Crime is a dead end career. Your freedom is priceless.”

For more information, log onto www.troubletongues.com