Cops swoop on £50m taxi tycoon
‘Crisis meeting’ after checks on licences
POLICE have swooped on taxi millionaire Stevie Malcolm’s offices.
Officers called on Wednesday at Glasgow Private Hire’s HQ in the city’s east end.
Heavily overweight Malcolm – whose £50million fortune makes him one of Scotland’s richest men – was later seen leaving the offices with an associate.
And sources said the visit led to a “crisis meeting” that evening between Malcolm, 54, and his managers.
A police spokesman said yesterday that the visit was a “routine” licensing check.
A source said: “Police officers turned up at the Glasgow Private Hire offices in the afternoon. It caught everyone unaware. They just turned up out of nowhere.
“The word is that they took the place apart, looking at all the documentation and checking licences.
“They wanted to find out who was running the company and they are looking at whether they have the licences they need to operate in various parts of Glasgow.
“A crisis meeting with Stevie Malcolm and his managers was arranged for that evening. They are certainly not happy and they were in there for quite a while discussing things.”
A city council spokesman said: “Staff accompanied police on a routine licensing check at these premises.”
As well as Glasgow Private Hire, Malcolm is a director of Paisley Cab Co, Lanarkshire Private Hire and Edinburgh City Private Hire.
In July, our sister paper the Sunday Mail revealed that Malcolm had bought KeyCars to add to his portfolio.