Ex-Shropshire policeman out to beat the gangsters

Former Shropshire policeman Keith Bristow spent two years building Britain's answer to the FBI before the 5,000-strong National Crime Agency was launched with him at its helm.

The 47-year-old, from Bridgnorth, is director general of the new force and declared: "I have a fantastic job.

"It is a privilege to lead the NCA and I want to make it as good as it can possibly be. I want it to have a real effect on organised crime.

"I have been given the mandate and the powers to bring the full weight of law enforcement on it and our aim is to relentlessly disrupt the dangerous, serious criminals who make money out of the misery of others."

The organisation is a matrix of former crime-fighting agencies with a wide ranging brief that, in addition to organised crime, includes economic crime, border security, cyber crime and child exploitation.

Mr Bristow, a former senior officer at West Mercia Police, said: "I have the powers of a constable, an immigration officer and a custom officer but I am no longer a police officer."

The agency started operating in October and has already launched several major operations, ranging from drug smuggling to the football match-fixing probe that recently rocked the sport.

It is heading an inquiry into historic allegations of child abuse in north Wales in the 1970s and 1980s, involving children's homes, after it was revealed an original inquiry, which started in 1996, had uncovered only a fraction of the abuse.

Officers from the agency also swooped to smash an alleged sham marriage racket in Wolverhampton, which recently saw Indian Gurmail Joshan, from West Bromwich, jailed for a year for arranging a same-sex wedding with a Slovakian man after his visa ran out.

Mr Bristow attended St Mary's Bluecoat School and Oldbury Wells Comprehensive in Bridgnorth before joining the West Mercia police force as a 17-year-old cadet.

He served in both uniform and as a detective before being promoted to Detective Superintendent in 1998. He was seconded to the West Midlands Police Major Investigation Team, later transferring to the force permanently, where he served as operations manager and director of intelligence. Promoted to Chief Superintendent, he commanded an operational command unit in Birmingham.

While he was seconded to the force's operational support unit for the Euro football tournament in 1996, he was involved in the hunt for Horrett Campbell, the machete wielding maniac who attacked Lisa Potts and several of her pupils at Wolverhampton's St Luke's School, the incident that won her the George Medal, the highest civilian bravery award.

Mr Bristow recalled: "I was among those searching the tower block where he was found hiding in a riser but was not the officer who found him.

"I organised the cordon to get him out of there to the van and also set up the security when he appeared in court."

Mr Bristow became an Assistant Chief Constable in 2002 before becoming a director of the National Criminal Intelligence Service. In 2005 he was appointed Deputy Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police and became the force's Chief Constable in July 2006.

Then in October 2011 he won the job of Director General of the National Crime Agency, two years before it launched. He said: "There are three reasons why my career has been a success; opportunity, working for very good people and a bit of luck.

"A number of other chief constables applied for the NCA job but I was appointed. I then spent two years working with the Home Office and the government while the agency was set up."

The father of three has come a long way from the modest flat he shared with his parents before moving to Bridgnorth at the age of seven, but never forgot his roots during the meteoric rise to the top.

He says he is proud of his Midlands roots, which involved early years in Wolverhampton before a happy later childhood in Shropshire.

He insisted he was "very proud" of his heritage and described people in the Midlands as "straight forward, no nonsense folk who live their lives in a straight forward way".

It is obvious that he does not relish talking about himself and is keen to keep personal details about his family to a minimum for reasons of modesty and security. He did not want the Christian names of his parents made public – his mother is still alive and living in the Midlands – and preferred to keep details of his wife and children private. His grandmother lived just a goal kick from the Wolves' Molineux ground and Mr Bristow said his family have deep roots in the region.

He added: "My mum is still alive and I still have relatives living there although I do not come back very often now. Sadly it tends to be for funerals or, more enjoyably, weddings and christenings.

"My dad grew up in Wolverhampton and my mum was the daughter of an airman based at RAF Cosford. She lived in Albrighton." By coincidence that Shropshire village was also the birthplace of another of the country's crime fighters, Craig Mackey, deputy commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.

The National Crime Agency director general remains a dedicated Wolves supporter. He explained: "I was about four when my dad took me to my first game. I have been a fan ever since and held a season ticket until 1999. I still watch them whenever I can."

Mr Bristow concluded with a smile: "Being a lifelong Wolves fan has done me a lot of good. It has helped to make me persistent and used to dealing with disappointment."