A FORMER Tyneside apprentice has been admitted to the bar after completing a law degree in New Zealand.

David Beck, 43, from Gosforth, left Gosforth High School, Newcastle, with six CSEs in 1975 and embarked on an engineering apprenticeship, working as a fitter and turner for Ingersoll Rand in Gateshead for seven years.

He then emigrated to New Zealand with his wife Linda, becoming a full time trade union official for the New Zealand Public Service Association and then a teachers' union in Wellington.

In 1994, he moved to Christchurch, where he completed a law degree at Canterbury University.

He was admitted to the bar this month.