My father was jailed for fraud when I was 15

TV comic Romesh Ranganathan today tells how his family upbringing was turned upside down after his father was sent to jail for fraud.

- BY MARK JEFFERIES and JANINE YAQOOB

He was 15 and at private school when he and his younger brother and mother were forced to move out of the family home.

And on top of that, schoolboy Romesh discovered his dad Ranga had been having an affair.

He opens up on his turbulent teenage years and his battle with mental health problems in a new radio interview.

“My dad had fallen into financial trouble. He'd lost his job and he was trying to make money in this sort of Sri Lankan Del Boy way, and it wasn’t working out,” Romesh, 47, reveals.

“He couldn't keep up the mortgage repayments. And my parents couldn't afford the fees at this school I was going to.”

Matters came to a head when Ranga disappeared for several days. Romesh was tasked with asking the “other woman” where his dad was on behalf of his anxious mother.

Crying

Romesh says: “She tells us my dad had been arrested three days previously, and had been involved in some sort of fraud case. I don't know why he'd not got in touch, but this lady knew. He ended up going to prison for just under two years.