Reformed gangster Paul Ferris has revealed he is now living back home in Scotland after years in London – but has no fears over his safety.
He claims the gangland figures who wanted him dead are either retired or dead themselves.
In an exclusive interview with the Daily Record, Ferris said: “Home is Ayrshire.
“I’ve been back in Scotland five months and it is kind of strange to be back.”
Asked if he has to look over his shoulder, he said: “That’s all in the past, mostly anybody is dead or retired or they don’t want to know.
“I used to tell people I go to Halfords, buy two wing mirrors and put them on my shoulders. Now I’ve got no enemies and I’m happy to be back in Scotland doing what I’m doing.”
Ferris revealed in yesterday’s Daily Record that he is now finished with crime – and warned the current generation of gangsters they are in a losing battle thanks to new hi-tech police tactics.
But he says he lives every day with regrets over his own life of crime.
The dad-of-five said: “Everyone has regrets. I probably regret most of all not being the best father.
“I missed a lot of my own kids’ childhood and you can never get that back, but what I’m proud of most is my sons who never followed my path.
“They broke the link from me being involved in serious organised crime, my dad being involved in serious organised crime and my grandad being involved in serious organised crime.
“Going back and in the 1940s just after the Second World War, there was a black market that my dad facilitated through eggs and chocolate, the silk stockings and demob suits.
“My dad was an armed robber. I’ve been visiting prisons since I was nine years of age.
“I had lawful employment when I left school. I was a van boy for a subsidy of Newcastle Breweries called Waverley Vintners.
“I was earning £180-a-week. I wasn’t in the high life at that stage and I wasn’t in any trouble until I got offered £500 as a getaway driver for a jewellery robbery.
“I declined the £500 but I was told to keep it and I remember hiding it in the speaker on my stereo so my mother wouldn’t find it and ask me where I got that from.”
By 19, he was an enforcer for Glasgow’s Godfather of crime, Arthur Thompson.
“I grew up 300 yards from the Thompson household and I was in a young offenders institution at 16 years of age,” he said. “I got to know Arthur. Nobody called him the Godfather apart from solicitors. Even his own solicitor, Joe Beltrami, said Arthur was embarrassed by it.”
Ferris told in yesterday’s Daily Record how he believes criminals face lengthy prison terms as law enforcement agencies use new hi-tech gadgets to bang them up.
But he also feared a return to jail himself after being released in 2002 from his own prison term for gun running.
Released in January of that year he was picked up and driven to remote woodland in Berwick by celebrity photographer Brian Anderson.
But Ferris got a shock when the snapper opened his car boot to reveal a cache of pistols and machine guns.
The reformed gangster, 61, said: “I had just got released on January 21st, 2002. I was picked up by Brian not far from the prison and I was taken to a remote wooded location for a photoshoot.
“In order to get released I had to sign a lifelong restriction order that I’m not allowed to possess a firearm.
“If I’m caught with a firearm it’s an automatic five years for breaching that license and a consecutive sentence which would probably be another five years for possession.
“Brian popped the boot of the car open and it looked like loads of guns but he assured me they were replicas.
“I asked him to photograph them before I even touched them to prove they were replicas if anyone questioned that fact.”
The photo shoot led to an image of Ferris pointing the firearm on the cover of the Ferris biography Vendetta.
Later that day, the pair left Glasgow’s Art House Hotel hoping to avoid paparazzi.
Ferris added: “I had to pick up current partner Sandra and Brian volunteered to take me.
“We were sitting at a set of traffic lights at George Square and Brian said, ‘Paul, I need to tell you something.’
“I thought he was going to tell me he was an undercover cop, you’re under arrest for the guns in the boot.
“He said, ‘I’ve got no tax’.
“Then he said, ‘There’s something else. My MOT is up… and so is my insurance’.
“That he didn’t have tax or insurance was the least of my worries.
“Brian sped off leaving the paparazzi for dust. He never needed to do that sort of favour but he did.
“I call Brian the getaway driver and also 118118 because of his connections.
“He is great at getting photographs and has now collected photos not just relating to criminality but in sports and celebrities and business. Brian is the guy to go to.
“He is totally professional in what he is doing and I look forward to seeing his new book Faces 2.”
Anderson, who features Ferris in his photography book Faces, recalled: “I also told Paul I had a warrant out over unpaid parking tickets. He said, ‘F*** sake, Brian. I’m supposed to be the one police are looking for’. He thought I was an undercover cop.”
Brian Anderson’s book Faces 2 is available from www.glasgoweyes.com
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