A man who was branded "Britain's naughtiest kid" has transformed his life and now brings in £360,000 annually through his personal development business in Thailand.
Tom Roberts, now 24, featured on Mr Drew's School For Boys back in 2014 when he was just 11 years old, struggling with severe behavioural problems that saw him constantly fighting and swearing at adults on camera.
The young entrepreneur from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire has since established Generation I, a personal development academy based in Koh Samui that helps clients across the globe become "the best version of themselves".
His business now serves more than 240 clients worldwide, generating approximately £30,000 each month.
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Mr Roberts acknowledges his conduct during the programme was "awful" but uses his experiences to guide others facing similar challenges towards better choices.
His troubled behaviour began spiralling after his father Lou died from alcoholism at the age of 56, when he was just nine years old.
"The death of my dad made things a lot worse and I was pushing everyone around me to their limits," he said.
The youngster was frequently caught climbing out of windows and getting into scraps at school, eventually being thrown out of primary school mere weeks before finishing for calling his headteacher a "bald idiot k**d".
Tom Roberts has turned his life around
|His mother Christina Sadler, 52, discovered the Channel 4 programme in a magazine and enrolled her son, hoping the four-week rehabilitation initiative might help.
"Behind the scenes, the staff were trained specifically in helping those with behavioural management problems," Mr Roberts explained. "They also helped support the parents too."
However, the intervention proved short-lived. Within three months of starting secondary school, Mr Roberts faced expulsion once again.
He subsequently transferred to Archers Brook, a specialist school in Ellesmere Port, where he successfully completed all his GCSEs.
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Tom Roberts featured on the programme when he was younger
|CHANNEL 4
Despite completing further education qualifications in business studies at college, Mr Roberts continued to struggle with controlling his temper.
In November 2020, he received an 11-month sentence, suspended for 18 months, at Chester Crown Court for grievous bodily harm after punching a man in the face at Tenpin in Cheshire Oaks.
Less than a year later, in September 2021, he was back before the same court after fracturing another man's jaw during an altercation at a nightclub.
This time, he was handed 18 months in a young offenders institution, comprising 10 months for breaching his suspended sentence and eight months for the new offence.
He said: "It was massive time for reflection... I found more peace in prison because I had structure. I would eat, sleep, train, walk and go outside at the same time every day. It was sort of a blessing for my ADHD mind."
Upon his release from HMP Hindley in March 2023, Mr Roberts threw himself into self-improvement literature and sought guidance from wellness coaches, including the renowned Bob Proctor.
This newfound focus prompted him to relocate to Thailand in November 2023, where he launched Generation I the following month.
The online venture provides personalised development programmes designed to help people "transform their lives" and "rewrite their own story".
Mr Roberts reflected on years of being written off by those around him.
He said: "For most of my childhood, basically until now, people have told me that I'd amount to nothing. And now I'm an entrepreneur shaping lives for the better. Kind of like a therapist."
He added: "You are not defined by your past and I'm living proof that you can always turn a new leaf. Never give up."
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