Andrew Pritchard is a well-known, and highly unusual man. He’s lived a unique and colourful life and continues to set the standard when it comes to bringing ideas to fruition.

You may have read his book “Urban Smuggler”, which has been endorsed by leading criminologists, universities, and colleges around the United Kingdom, and become recommended reading for students studying criminology. Perhaps you’ve seen him on TV or watched his podcast interview with James English.

Now Executive Founder of the AP Foundation, Andrew Pritchard was brought up in the London borough of Hackney and Stoke Newington, where he was part of Britain’s first post-Windrush mixed-race generation, born in the sixties. His first encounter with the prison service was in October 1986, when he was sentenced to 18 months in youth custody.

By the age of 21, he was organising some of the largest illegal warehouse raves in the country, during the acid house party craze of the late 1980s. The promotion company he co-founded called “Genesis 88” has been mentioned in over sixty published books on the subject matter of Rave culture. 

A successful entrepreneur and concert promoter for over 27 years, he revived the iconic Reggae Sunsplash festival, staging one of the UK’s largest music events in 1999, at Victoria Park.

At the same time, he was also masterminding some of the world’s biggest drug smuggling operations and soon began appearing in the United States Department of Justice and Drug Enforcement Administration’s Annual Global Report and even featured in the Sunday People’s Criminal Rich List. In 2006, he was acquitted of a £100 million drug seizure case, before his  criminal career was finally brought to an abrupt end, which resulted in him receiving a 15-year prison sentence for intent to supply and perverting the course of justice.

Assessed by the prison service as a very high-risk Category A prisoner, for whom escape must be made impossible, he was to spend a number of years in some of Britain’s most challenging prisons, in the company of some of the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Being locked up and away from his ageing parents, family and children, Andrew had to face the consequences of his criminal past and it was whilst in prison, he made the big decision to change his life.

It was during Andrew’s time served first at HMP Belmarsh and in the following years at different prisons, that he changed from being a hardened criminal to a man who turned his life around and committed himself to supporting young prisoners to turn away from crime. Andrew focused on giving them hope and opportunity.

Following Andrew’s release from prison, he made the decision to form the AP Foundation, which is now a leading rehabilitation charity helping young people steer away from crime. For more information about the AP Foundation, please visit www.apfoundation.org.uk

Today the flyer (handbill) used to advertise Andrew’s first Genesis 88 warehouse party can be seen exhibited at the Museum of London.

In 2022, Andrew gave permission for his story to be used in the “Black Hero’s Journey” which is a rehabilitation programme delivered in HMP & YOI Isis, by an award-winning prison charity. The course addresses the specific experiences of young black and mixed-race men in the prison system, who are over-represented.

Andrew also runs an extremely insightful workshop focusing on mental and emotional resilience, drawing upon his own life traumatic experiences, and his subsequent overcoming of them.

He is an extremely articulate and engaging speaker, with a track record of phenomenal success within programme development, business entrepreneurship, rehabilitation, and crisis management fields.