Conman calls for designer watch return
FRAUDSTER Barry Hughes wants one of his designer watches back despite agreeing to a £53,000 confiscation order.
The businessman, 40, from Kilmacolm, Renfrewshire, was hit with the order after a dirty money probe and told to hand over luxury items including four designer watches and a £5600 mobile phone.
It came after he was fined £45,000 when he admitted £1.3million mortgage frauds.
Yesterday at Glasgow Sheriff Court, Hughes’ lawyer Paul Reid made a motion for the Crown to “return a watch”.
The matter was continued until a later date. MUSIC fans are fuming after an upcoming gig was cancelled because of Brexit. William Boyle bought tickets costing £149 for Music Show Scotland – UK at the SSE Hydro in April as a Christmas gift for his mum Janet, 58, and her husband also William, 63. MSS – UK is one of the biggest Scottish traditional music shows in the world but originates in the Netherlands. On February 11, William, 35, received an email from Ticketmaster informing him the show had been cancelled “due to unforeseen circumstances”. But the Greenock man wanted to investigate further. He told the Record: “I bought the tickets on December 8 for my mum and dad. “My mum especially likes bagpipes. The show looked very similar to the Edinburgh BY KATHLEEN SPEIRS Tattoo, so I thought they would both enjoy it.
“After receiving the email, I checked the Facebook page for MMS and they had posted a statement with a similar explanation.
“I wasn’t happy with that so I messaged them privately.”
William contacted MSS on Monday and received a reply on the next day.
It read: “The man reason is the uncertainty around Brexit.
“As our production is coming from the mainland, it is a huge project to take overseas.
“Brexit is causing too many questions that cannot be answered in the near future and we could not take the risk and just hope for a good outcome.
“We are very sorry we had to disappoint you. Hopefully, we will have a change in the future when our situation is more stable.”
Fuming at the response, William told the Record: “It’s ludicrous. How can Brexit stop a concert going ahead. The whole thing has really annoyed me.”
MSS incorporates 200 pipers, drummers, dancers and musicians, who perform a unique mix of traditional Celtic music with elements of pop and rock, while the stage is made to look like a Scottish castle.
A spokesman for the Scottish Event Campus, which runs The Hydro, said: “Any comment on reasons relating to the cancellation of an event would need to come from the event promoter directly.”
A spokesman from MSS-UK said: “We are disappointed that we had to cancel the show due to many uncertainties.
“A few months ago, we had hoped Brexit would have been fixed or delayed by the time we would come to Glasgow.
“But, unfortunately, there is still very much uncertainty. We had many unanswered questions when it comes to shipping goods, transport of players, documents, border control, estimated time for crossing the border etc etc.”