And it’s a farewell to my school friend, who, along with several others from my school, has been a loyal and supportive mate to me post injury. Neil died suddenly at the weekend. I’d spoken to him only 2 days prior.

Neil Robins was a real character, for sure. Definitely had a criminal leaning.. and an eye for an opportunity.
When he was about 21, he advertised in a Cardiff newspaper, a date site that he had set up ( and it would have been one of the very first sites )
He advertised a joining fee along with having to send in your details and your love CV… and what you were looking for etc.
The joining fee and first instalment was quite a lot but there were it seems a lot of lonely hearts in Cardiff .. so the cash poured in.

Except he didn’t actually arrange any dates for anyone, but still cashed the cheques.

I think he possibly banked on no one complaining, as back then it would have been embarrassing to admit you had to resort to a date site to find a girl/ fella… but someone did complain, and then went to the police.

Neil went to jail for fraud.

I remember being told the story when I was about 22, and just finding it hilarious, given I was in school with the criminal mastermind.

Imagine if he’d actually set up a decent site, and it endured? As one of the first, he could by now be in charge of an empire… and be like Hugh Hefner.
🤷

RIP Neil x