GANGSTER’S GRAVE WARNING
Furious Kelbie offers £5k bounty for vandal’s identity
A GANGSTER who issued a £5000 reward to find out who wrecked his brother’s grave is to be slapped down by police.
Robert Kelbie told contacts on Facebook that he would give cash to “anyone who can let me know who this coward is”.
But a police source said: “He’ll be spoken to about issuing public threats.”
A GANGLAND figure is to be warned by police after issuing a £5000 bounty for the identity of the vandal who wrecked his brother’s grave.
Furious Robert Kelbie, 35, went on social media to hit out at yobs who desecrated his brother Mark’s resting place at an Edinburgh cemetery. Ex-boxer Mark, 35, died in a car crash near Upper Largo in Fife in 2016. Kelbie raged on Facebook: “Someone has vandalised my brother’s grave last night. Pathetic and low isn’t the word. No bravery in that at all.
“If there’s anyone who can let me know who this coward is, I’ll pay £5000. No one will know who it came from.”
But a police source said Kelbie, a convicted fraudster who has been shot and whose house has been targeted by gunmen, will be spoken to by cops.
The source said: “We can understand his anger at the vandalism but he should be reporting it to police, not offering reward money for names.
“He’ll be spoken to about issuing public threats, particularly when large sums of money are involved. People may decide to offer up innocent names in return for cash.
“This is not how the real, law-abiding world works. Police cannot encourage this kind of vigilante justice.”
Mark, once jailed for 13 years for a brutal baseball bat attack, died after he lost control of his BMW and it crashed into a wall.
A spokeswoman for Police Scotland said: “Police are aware of social media posts and inquiries are ongoing.”
In August, we told how former boxer Kelbie, who has been embroiled in a feud with cocaine baron Mark Richardson for several years, enraged locals by building a 7ft wall with electric gates around his Edinburgh property. The compound was already fortified with spiked railings and CCTV.
The house was targeted by gunmen in 2013 and 2016. In the second attack, a bullet smashed a bedroom window and another damaged a porch.
In 2010, Kelbie was shot twice in the car park of a health club in Edinburgh.
He has enjoyed a flash lifestyle, once dating ex-Miss Scotland Lois Weatherup and driving a £100,000 Ferrari.
He was made bankrupt after he was convicted of fraud in 2013 and targeted under Proceeds of Crime laws.