Robert Cummines OBE, FRSA (born 23 November 1951) is an English former business crime leader, protection racketeer, armed robber, and criminal enforcer who was chief executive of Unlock, The National Association of Reformed Offenders from April 1999 until March 2012.

[3] He described the moment he decided to get into crime, saying as he was walking through the park, he noticed two individuals he had previous encounters with and two police officers allegedly mistreated the two during interrogations, which led Cummines to speak up, saying that as the two involved were minors, an adult had to be present during questioning.

He expanded into leading a group of criminal enforcers, extortionists and racketeers known as "The Chaps", employing extreme violence in 1970s North London with his fearsome reputation and a sawn-off double-barrel shotgun named "Kennedy" after JFK.

He began writing poetry and got into contact with Labour MP Tony Benn who was willing to help him and contributed a foreword to his published poems, as well as changing rules so that the aim of prisons was stated to be to "rehabilitate and educate" rather than the free-for-all ethos that Cummines had experienced.

[citation needed] Cummines has criticised the system of high-security prisons, which places many brilliant criminal minds in one location and thus enables them to teach each other tricks and establish connections.