Released for the final time in 2017 and at that point in his 30s and homeless, Mentesh found himself sleeping on his sister’s sofa before he moved to a hostel.
He then met his now-wife and after finding out she was pregnant “that was it, and I said, ‘what do I do from here?'”.
Building on the education he had gained while in jail, he first went to college for two years before attending Queen Mary University where he gained a degree in business management.
Job placements followed, as well as work with charities, before he set up Anabranch, a company which works to rehabilitate prisoners.
Mentesh says the firm’s name, taken from the part of a river that splits off before reconnecting with the main waterway further downstream, is apt to his own story.
“I was part of society for a little bit and then I was removed from it, and then I was put back further downstream,” he says.
Along with this work, he remains a keen book advocate, working with charities to support literacy programmes, as well as still being a prolific reader.
The next book on his reading list is Previous Engagements by Bruce Shand, the Queen’s father. She gave it to him following the BBC documentary.
The book examines how Shand came to love books while a prisoner of war during World War Two, something Mentesh relates to from his discovery of The Eagle Has Landed in his first prison cell.
“For me, books meant a whole lot more than just passing time,” he says.
“I thought I was just getting knowledge… I didn’t know a book actually has the power to change a person.”