I was born in Lennoxtown, Scotland in 1954. My parents were from London. My father was posted to Scotland at the time of my birth. I was brought up in Manchester from the age of 4 in a tough working class area. I left school with no qualifications at the age of 15, a tough nut and went to work in in Manchester Flower market. In 1972 I attended college in Lewisham, London and gained some educational qualifications and discovered I was dyslexic. I wanted to become a sports teacher was due to go to York University to study but broke a bone in my knee. I later played semi-professional football in the London Spartan league 1973-76.I took a temporary job at the Inland Revenue, where I was falsely accused of fraud by a dodgy Tax Inspector. Landed a job with a prestigious firm of Chartered Accountants in 1974, where I was introduced to the rich and famous and in later years downright crooked.

In 1990 I meet Mike Ridley, he was the features editor of the Sun Newspaper, and we became good friends. In 1994 we set up later the famous award winning Sun Money Help Line. I continued to advise the Sun on the Governments annual budgets and general tax matters until 2026.

In 1992, I left P.K.F. to set up my own tax practise JLA. With the help of my friend and colleague Norris Gilbert and tax barrister Bunny (Osman Azis), we handled dozens of Criminal Investigations carried out by HMRC.