THE chairman of Durham County Council, Councillor Alan Fenwick, was given a spell behind bars - without committing a crime.

Coun Fenwick agreed to spend time behind bars in a mobile cell used by the No Way Trust, a national charity that tries to deter youngsters from a life of crime.

The charity works with schools and youth offending teams and the cell, along with a flat-pack version that can be assembled, are used to show youngsters what a prison sentence means.

The charity has received a year's funding of £12,000 from the Lloyds TSB Foundation to open the first regional office of its kind in the country, at the Imex Business, Pity Me, Durham, which Coun Fenwick officially opened.

John Johnston, the project co-ordinator, who is seconded from Durham's Frankland Prison, said: "We have a couple of studies by university criminology departments that show we have a significant effect on young people's attitudes to crime.

"In Peterlee, there was a trial period when 74 young people came through the project and we had only two re-offend, which a fairly dramatic statistic considering that 86 per cent of people who come into custody re-offend.''

Mr Johnston said that the project worked by telling youngsters they faced a choice in whether to commit crime and what could happen if they were caught.

He said that after sampling life in the cell "they are fully aware of what custody is all about".

The project, which is manned by prison officer volunteers, is supported in the region by Durham County Council and the development agency One NorthEast.