An award-winning bakery creating sustainable employment for people with criminal convictions while bringing out their culinary talents has gone from selling 500 pies and pasties a week to 7,000.

Bolton-based H.M.Pasties was launched in 2017 to offer a transitional employment programme.

Set up by ex-offender Lee Wakeham, the aim is to ‘bring out the good inside’ by employing those in need of a lifeline after leaving prison to make and sell handmade pasties and pies with a purpose, equipping them for the world of work and priming them for future employment.

After triumphing at the British Pie Awards, H.M. Pasties brought its award-winning grub to the 18th annual Bolton Food and Drink Festival, which hosted celeb demos from top chefs Gok Wan, Nisha Katona and James Martin over the August bank holiday weekend.

Ravenous festival-goers snapped up favourites including the British Pie Awards silver prize-winning cheese and the onion pie and vegan class-winning chickpea curry pasty.

Lee is proud that the bakery’s popularity is growing, supplying to 43 restaurants, Manchester City match days and their pies are on the menu at the Bolton Stadium Hotel, with 10 people working in the kitchen.

He said: “At one point we were selling 500 pies and pasties a week. Now we are selling 7,000 pies a week.”

For more information visit hmpasties.com