YOUNG people heard a cautionary tale about prison and drugs from a former stock market millionaire who was jailed in America.

Shaun Attwood, drug supplier turned public speaker, activist and author, spoke to pupils at Rivington and Blackrod School about his life.

Raised in Widnes, the 45-year-old moved to Arizona in 1991, where he worked his way up to become stockbroker and a tech-stock millionaire during the dot.com bubble.

But having been a raver in Manchester in the late '80s, Shaun took his love of dance music to the US— organising raves and importing the party drug Ecstasy.

In 2002, a SWAT team smashed his door down.

On remand for 26 months, he started his first prison blog, which turned the international media spotlight on the conditions — gang members and guards murdering inmates, dead rats in the food, cockroaches crawling in his ears.

He was sentenced to nine-and-half years for running an Ecstasy ring, and served almost six years.

Random House published his life story as the English Shaun Trilogy: Party Time, Hard Time and Prison Time.

Shaun said: “In jail, I realised the harm that drugs do to people, so I resolved to share my story in the hope that young people won’t make my mistakes.

"It is my hope that young people will learn to weigh up the consequences of their behaviour and think twice about getting involved in drugs and crime.”

To dramatically illustrate the talk to year 10 and 11 pupils, two pupils dressed in prison uniforms

Year 11 pupil Rebecca Greenfield said: "The talk was so interesting. I will definitely be avoiding drugs and will not be breaking the law."

Pam Hare, PSHCE coordinator at the Horwich school said: “Shaun has run previous presentations for us in school and they have all had a tremendous, positive impact on young people.

"His hard-hitting and insightful presentation on drugs and prison life carries an important message about the dangers of a high risk lifestyle and the consequences of the choices we make.

"Real life examples are such an important part of educating our students about the dangers of drugs and this supports the work that we do in school on drugs education throughout the year.”