A former gang leader is releasing his autobiography next month after turning his back on a life of crime.

Justin Rollins, 26, who grew up in Carshalton, began his downward spiral when he discovered graffiti at the age of nine.

He later started his own graffiti-writing gang which grew to thirty or forty people before eventually turning to violent street crime.

He said: “We became the most feared gang in the area. Many of my friends from that time ended up dying or going to prison.

“I spent three-and-a-half years in prison for street robberies.”

In 2008, when Mr Rollins was 23 years old, he decided to turn his life around. He said his epiphany came after he was attacked by 14 people in Sutton and ended up striking two of them with a broken bottle.

He said: "I was in and out of court for about a year.

"In the end I got off but a few days later I was really depressed and scared about what had happened.

"I didn't understand why as I was used to that lifestyle but then it dawned on me that you shouldn't be used to getting beaten up."

After the attack Rollins said he started attending counselling sessions which looked back to his childhood and helped him uncover the root of his problems. He now works as a security guard and writes for a national prison magazine.

His book, The Lost Boyz: A Dark Side of Graffiti, looks back over his life growing up in Carshalton and explores his views on the causes of street crime.

It is being published by criminal justice publishers Waterside Press in February and has a forward by crime writer Noel 'Razor' Smith.

Rollins, who now lives in Tooting, said: “The book took me four or five months to write then about two years to get it published.

“When I was in prison I did a lot of writing . I really enjoy it – it gives me a buzz.

“Sometimes I find it hard to look back at some of the chapters. I think:'Was that really me'?”