A myth. The episode with Locarno was by staff writers, wouldn't have needed any extra fee to re-use the same character. Ro was already semi-regular character too, same deal.
I think Ron Moore, one of the staff writers for that season of TNG, mentioned this in a recent interview.
I always assumed it had more to do with him smuggling goods into federation colonies or some such. He's a very good pilot because he knows how to slip between the cracks of sensor fields and how to use unconventional maneuvers to throw off anyone chasing him. Sounds like the behaviour of a smuggler to me.
Also, I'm pretty sure the pitch for Tom Paris was basically "Han Solo but Star Trek".
lol yeah I never really understood why they tried to sell Neelix as this tough, no-nonsense scrapper when they hired this guy to play the role. Star Trek has some very questionable casting sometimes. Not that Neelix isn't great, but he definitely isn't a "tough guy".
Nah if he did he wouldnt have tried blowing up the oxygen extraction plants on that water bubble colony to protect their environment. The types to storm the federation capitol would have been the type to want people like paris thrown out of hover copters for being too woke