NOTORIOUS North-East crook Spider Boy will be paid to make a film about youth crime when he is freed.

Charity bosses have lined up a plum job for boy criminal Tommy Laws, now 20. He is to make a video warning youngsters from problem estates to stay away from crime.

Church charity, the Cedarwood Trust, chose him for the role in the hope that his story would discourage others from following his example, and give him a fresh start in life.

Laws first shot to infamy and earned his nickname as a 15-year-old, by escaping from police and secure institutions.

He was pictured racing across a rooftop in his home town of North Shields, North Tyneside, with police officers pursuing him.

The Reverend David Peel, manager of the charity, said: "We have lined up Tommy and two other youngsters for the role, which will begin in the early summer.

"The aim is to make a video about debt, the financial exclusion of young people and the link with crime. They will be paid, hopefully, a reasonable income."

Carole Bell, manager of the Meadows community centre on the troubled Meadow Well estate, North Shields, where Laws committed much of his crime, said: "I think it is excellent that he is being given a chance.

"He will need a lot of support to stay out of trouble."