Former Minder star Gary Webster has written a book offering people tips on how to cope with debt. Gary, who has starred in Minder, The Bill and Family Affairs, and his TV presenter wife Wendy Turner-Webster went bankrupt in 2005 - an experience which prompted him to write Debt Rescue: Surviving The Financial Nightmare. In the book, Gary reveals how he got into a financial mess and offers advice to people in the same situation. He chronicles how he thought his success with Minder would never end, and so adopted a 'spend spend spend' philosophy. But when he received a demand for unpaid income tax in 2000 he had to remortgage his mother's house to pay the money back - and that only covered about half what he owed. Gary admits he struggled for five years trying to pay his debts, saying: "I would have done anything to avoid the stigma of bankruptcy." However, then he hit a patch of even worse luck, when wife Wendy became ill with meningitis and couldn't work for over a year, and a builder left the couple with a £15,000 repair bill. He revealed: "The morning after Family Affairs won Best Storyline at the 2005 Soap Awards, I received a petition for bankruptcy letter."
