A man who spiralled into addiction spent £25,000 on alcohol in just two weeks. David Rixon, 22, was left in more than £12,500 of debt following a year of gambling and drinking after a mugging and motorbike accident forced him to take time off work.

He spent his £96 weekly statutory sick pay pay on online casinos and maxed out eight credit cards in just two months. Despite laws not allowing people to gamble with credit cards, David would use a loophole to withdraw money from the cards before depositing money onto the debit card he used to gamble.

At one point, he made back £17,000 in winnings – but splurged it and £8k more from credit cards – on a massive two-week bender. David covered drinks for himself and all of his friends and would spend the day binge drinking and taking drugs.

His booze spending was wild – from multiple crates of beer to drink on the beach to spending hundreds every night on multiple £80 vodka bottles in clubs. His final “wake-up call” happened after a heavy night of drinking led to him being “unable to function”.

Former fish and chip bar worker David quit everything – coffee, alcohol, gambling and smoking – all at once. Now, one year and seven months sober, David has placed himself under a 12-month debt relief order (DRO) to clear the rest of his debt.

David wants to use his story to help others and is now calling for more security around credit cards and gambling. David, currently unemployed from Plymouth, Devon, said: “It just shows how things creep up on you and you don’t realise it.

“I wasn’t registering it. By the time I knew it, I’d gone through eight credit cards and the winnings and spent it all on alcohol. I used to come home from drinking and gambling and my sister at the time was five or six and I used to just shout and swear at her and my mum.

“It was not the person I wanted to be – slamming things and breaking things. If I fast forward to now, I’m a year and seven months sober, don’t gamble, don’t drink, don’t do anything like that and I have a very big connection with family, friends and my partner, Nicholas. It’s completely different to what I was. I’ve worked on myself so much.”

David was mugged in September 2021 in the centre of Plymouth, leaving him traumatised and still suffering to this day. Just two months later, he broke his foot when his motorbike fell on it during a road accident.

He said: “I had four or five months of recovery and I was on statutory sick pay. I was living at home with no bills as such and the money I was getting – £96 a week – was going into gambling.

“I lost a lot but I always knew I’d have another £96 to put in next week. I was sat at home, bored and I made about £17.5k in those four months. I opened eight credit cards and maxed those out too and although you’re not allowed to gamble with credit cards, if you withdraw money from a credit card and put it on your debit card, you can gamble.

“When I was able to get back on my feet from the foot break, I was in a bad state of mind and I was constantly arguing with family, going out all the time and I didn’t want to be here anymore.” In May 2022, David spent all the money he’d made from the credit cards and gambling. He said: “I was that desperate to spend it – all £25k. I would buy mine and my friend’s drinks.

“I’d be binge drinking all day, buying drugs, buying crates of beer to drink on the beach, going out to clubs and buying two or three £80 vodka bottles a night. When people nowadays tell me that they’ve managed to spend a grand in a day or a week – I think about how was I able to spend that amount of money in the same amount of time. If I had £25k right now I’d be getting a deposit.”

After David paid back half of his £12.5k debt, he decided to quit alcohol and gambling in October 2022. “I was passed out in my friend’s corridor from drink. I felt awful”, he said. “That was my warning and wake-up call. I quit everything, coffee, alcohol and smoking Those 10 days after that were the worst days ever. But I did it and that’s the main thing.”

David went on to launch a business focusing on helping people achieve their dreams throughout 2023, before putting himself in a debt relief order to clear the rest of his debt. DRO is a debt relief service, meaning David will not have to pay the remaining debt after 12 months but cannot manage or control a business or earn any income without informing the Insolvency Service.

He said: “I didn’t have the help myself with that and I just want to help people now. With that, I started doing more networking events and had around 12 clients that I was helping.

“I then decided to put myself in a debt relief order to clear the rest of the debt, meaning I can’t legally manage the company, so for 12 months I have put my mum in charge until then.

“I feel 100% better. People ask if I had the chance to change what happened, I say no. It’s made me who I am now. I just want to get out there, share my story and help people. No matter where you are, you can change your life and make it better.”