My £75 Old Firm booze ban bus fine is total joke
Landlords’ £21bn spend Driver’s fury at smuggling rap
NEARLY two-thirds of homes bought by a landlord in the past year were paid for in cash, marking the highest level in at least a decade.
Over the last 12 months, 65 per cent of homes purchased by landlords in the UK were paid for in cash – a record £21billion worth, according to estate agency Countrywide.
The proportion is the highest since their records started in 2007, when 60 per cent were paid for with a mortgage. A FOOTBALL coach driver is to take on prosecutors over a fine he was handed for someone smuggling alcohol on to the bus on match day.
Jim McNally, a driver with 30 years’ experience, has also been threatened with an Asbo after police passed his details to Community Safety Glasgow.
Jim claims he and other drivers who carry Rangers and Celtic fans on match days are being targeted by police, who have powers to fine the driver, the supporters’ bus convener and the actual offender if any alcohol is smuggled on to the coach.
Jim, a dad of four from Cambuslang, near Glasgow, says he is never stopped or checked when carrying Hibernian or Dundee United fans.
He was given the fine in Glasgow’s Panmure Street, when Partick Thistle took on Rangers at Firhill on September 15.
He said: “Before, the police would come on the bus and just take any drink away and that would be then end of it. But now they are not taking any prisoners.
“The police are not even searching the buses. What they are doing is waiting for someone to come off the bus and if they have got a bottle of beer, they are grabbing them and then going to the driver.
“In my case, the police asked me if I knew it was against the law to allow drink on the bus. I said I did know that. But I asked how I am supposed to police this. I am not allowed to search someone I suspect of having alcohol concealed. We as drivers are not allowed to look in anybody’s bags.
“If this goes on we are going to end up with lots of bus drivers with criminal records, which is going to be a serious impairment for future employment.”
Superintendent Alan Murray, said: “The Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 makes it an offence to possess alcohol on a bus being used to transport people to designated sporting events and it also makes it an offence for the driver and hirer to allow alcohol on board.
“These checks are carried out at all football matches, and unfortunately this example is just one of many reports of alcohol being carried and consumed on the way to and from these events.
“It is against the law and we will continue to target anyone who ignores the legislation.”