From Prison Cleaner to Biohazard Business Owner
Michael has seen and cleaned it all – from crime scenes to properties with decomposing bodies.
Since leaving prison two years’ ago, the ex-offender has worked hard to establish himself in biohazard cleaning and is now the director of his own company, London Cleaning Management, focusing on specialised cleaning.
Michael entered HMP Wandsworth in 2018 on drug importation and supply offences but it proved to be the launchpad for a career which led to him founding a company with significant turnover.
“Leaving my kids behind when I entered prison was traumatic - especially for them. It was a real heartache. That’s what changed me. Something clicked. I knew there could be no more selling drugs,” he says
While in prison, Michael took the opportunity to complete biohazard training, including the British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICSc) Licence to Practice (LTP).
“In prison there are certain jobs that make life a bit easier. You get more money and are treated better,” he explains. “Bio-cleaning was one of them.”
The work involved cleaning cells contaminated by blood, self-harm incidents and so-called ‘dirty protests’, where prisoners suffering severe mental health problems would smear excrement around cells.
Michael eventually became a senior cleaner and trainer inside the prison, teaching other inmates and signing them off on courses. He started a business management degree and began thinking seriously about building a legitimate future.
“I’ve always been entrepreneurial,” he says. “I’d always worked and always had businesses of some sort. But the money from drugs had taken priority over legitimate business. Now, I just want to build something better for my kids.”
On leaving jail, he initially juggled multiple jobs, including managing cleaning and maintenance operations remotely for a supported accommodation provider. That experience gradually opened the door to professional cleaning management.
At the same time, Michael connected with No Going Back, which introduced him to the compliance, health and safety and operational standards required to run larger commercial contracts professionally.
“That exposed me to the professional side of cleaning,” he says. “I just ran with it.”
London Cleaning Management now handles some of the toughest jobs in the cleaning industry: hoarder properties, sewage contamination, crime scene cleans, needle sweeps and decomposition cleaning after unattended deaths.
The company has since secured local authority work and some investment, and continues to expand, particularly in specialist biohazard cleaning. Michael believes the cleaning sector offers genuine opportunities.
“You’ve got to be willing to do the long game,” he says. “It’s not instant gratification like the drug world. You have to build it. But there are opportunities, it is a big industry. There are massive opportunities in bio-cleaning, particularly for ex-offenders who have been exposed to it in prison.”
Sam Worden works alongside the charity No Going Back Foundation, and with cleaning industry businesses and individuals to promote careers in the industry to offenders in prisons and mentor and support ex-offenders like Micheal into employment.
The charity has facilitated sessions in prison with 260 offenders who are keen on working in the industry when they leave. Micheal is one of three ex-offenders who have gone on to become cleaning industry business owners.
Sam said: “Our mission is to attract people into the cleaning industry, highlight the opportunities across the sector and the financial rewards.
‘As well as encouraging progression towards running your own business, we also promote the wide range of career opportunities across the cleaning sector, including management, admin, finance, health and safety and more.
“We describe how they can work in finance or HR or progress to become an operations manager with a company car, and we tell them about the opportunities in the waste industry, in window cleaning or in office support, for example. We get an extremely positive reaction, they are very interested.
“A career in the cleaning industry is a really good option for ex-offenders. Cleaning tends to be something they become passionate about. Once they get into it, they love it.”