‘Out of control’ British pensioners fined over hotel rampage

LONDON: An ‘out of control’ retired couple, who threatened staff and guests in the middle of the night at a luxury Scottish hotel, after ‘reacting badly’ to alcohol, were on Friday handed a heavy fine.

“Both accused were acting as if they were out of control,” prosecutor Michael Sweeney told the court in Perth, in the south of Scotland.

The court heard how Ruth Fergus, 69, woke her 72-year-old husband Robert, in the middle of the night on Feb 4, claiming that staff at the MacDonald Loch Rannoch Hotel had been hostile towards her.

Dressed in only a nightie, she then woke up a fellow guest who, upon noticing that she “was intoxicated and appeared confused,” went to alert staff at the reception.

But a naked Robert Fergus ran through the foyer armed with scissors and began threatening staff and guests that he would ‘slit’ and ‘kill’ them.

He also smashed a glass pane in the door with a sign he had picked up.

Panicked staff and guests ran from the hotel towards the nearby village of Kinloch Rannoch.

The silver-haired couple was arrested two hours later, after their BMW car was pulled over by police.

Lawyers representing the couple said they had “consumed much more alcohol than was sensible” and that Mrs Fergus had ‘reacted badly’ to the alcohol.

Sheriff Gillian Wade fined the couple £4,100 (US$5,300, 4,477 euros). Robert Fergus was also ordered to pay an additional £800 in damages to the hotel.

“I don’t think I need to tell you it’s a very sorry state of affairs,” Wade told Mr Fergus in court.

“I have no doubt you will regret it for the rest of your life,” he added. — AFP