SEARCHING for a job, Jeff? Then perhaps you'd better work under wraps.News that the shamed peer Jeffery Archer has put out feelers for voluntary work to help while away the remaining hours of his jail sentence was met with mixed reaction.

SEARCHING for a job, Jeff? Then perhaps you'd better work under wraps.

News that the shamed peer Jeffery Archer has put out feelers for voluntary work to help while away the remaining hours of his jail sentence was met with mixed reaction.

Reportedly he has shown an interest in getting a job at either the Woodbridge or Ipswich branch of Oxfam, but being a shop assistant is maybe too high a profile for the country's biggest con?

Does Jeff really want to be in the public gaze? Rather than face a barrage of shoppers wanting him to either sign books – or return them – the 62-year-old who is now better known as prisoner FF8282 might do better with a job altogether more undercover.

Maybe a job that keeps the Hollesley Bay resident's noble features hidden.

"We'd love to have him as one of our dwarves," said Janet Butcher co-ordinator of Co-op juniors Christmas production of Snow White.

"But unfortunately all the positions are filled. Besides that he would be too tall and he doesn't have a beard."

So if there's no place among Dopey, Happy and Bashful for Perjurer dwarf then how about a spell as the Tractor Boy mascot for Ipswich Town?

A former Tractor Boy told the Star: "It would keep his face covered but it's quite hard work. Also I don't think he supports Ipswich Town."

Other occupations that might suit include a masked speedway rider, a bearded Santa, or even a veiled beekeeper.

President of the Suffolk Bee Keepers' Association, Jeremy Quinlan, said: "The bees are in hibernation at the moment until February which might give him enough time to dash off another book.

"But I don't know if Jeffery Archer would make a great bee keeper you need a lot of patience and a lot of tolerance."

But at the Ipswich branch of Oxfam today, which counts one hardback copy of Archer's As The Crow Flies on its shelves, news of the latest recruit failed to bowl over Christmas shoppers.

Lesley Evans said: "Personally I think the man is a slime ball. But on the other hand if he is doing something for charity then that's a good thing.

"It wouldn't put me off coming in and I suppose it would make some people come in to look at him. If he's got to work somewhere than Oxfam is as good a place as any."

Anna Plant, a volunteer for 24 years, who hadn't heard of the former peer's plans, said: "It's not a bad place to set another novel. There's certainly plenty of intrigue."