Law agencies today have unlimited budgets, spyware, bugs..you'll get caught

Gun-runner tells of huge struggle going straight

- JOHN DINGWALL

NOTORIOUS former gangster Paul Ferris has revealed the hardest fight of his life was going straight after a life of crime.

Now, Ferris, 61, has warned a new generation of organised criminals they should also give up in the face a new breed of high-tech cops.

And he has revealed how a new film based on his downfall will show how the gangsters can't win. The convicted gunrunner is planning a follow up to The Wee Man the 2013 hit film starring Martin Compston that told the story of Ferris's upbringing and descent into a life of crime.

But he is gutted his pal Compston won't be starring in the sequel because he is too expensive. Ferris said: "I've got a new film coming.

Unfortunately, we lost Martin Compston. He went to do Line of Duty and good luck to him. Martin and his agent signed the contract with the BBC, and he's done brilliant, absolutely fantastic. Personally, I think the production company should have signed him up to a two-film deal.

"It would be very expensive to bring him back to do part two, but this film isn't a continuation of the first one.

"It's a totally separate entity. So I don't think we'd bring Martin back even if he wanted to do it. It's a fresh start with new faces, young, up-andcoming talent. This is more of a UK story than a Glasgow-based story.

What will grip people in the film in the true crime aspect is that myself and several others in the UK were the first to be arrested by MI5 and the security services in London." Ferris forged a career as an enforcer for Glasgow's Godfather of crime, the late Arthur Thompson, and became one of Scotland's most feared gangsters. But Ferris claims going straight has been one of the toughest things he's ever done.