No.1

‘Just where is the criminality here?’

A farming tycoon has walked free from court after a sheriff said he could not understand if a crime had been committed.

Euan Snowie, whose family made a fortune disposing of dead animals during the 2001 foot and mouth crisis, appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court on Wednesday.

The 49-year-old pled guilty to a charge of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner at the family’s home, Boquhan House in Kippen, on March 18.

But Sheriff Wyllie Robertson questioned the decision to proceed with the case and admonished Snowie.

He said: “In other circumstances, where someone else had done this, I doubt whether this would have come to

the attention of the authorities.

“I don’t understand the basis on which this prosecution has proceeded.”

Snowie had admitted smashing windows at the house with a hammer after claiming to have received a phone call from a family member, who said that his wife was ill.

Snowie and his wife Claire separated in February, having been married for 27 years, and Mrs Snowie is said to have suffered from ill health in recent months.

Fiscal depute Laura Knox said that the accused had been spotted in the back garden of the house by his wife, who denied that she had been ill at the time he attended.

“Mrs Snowie was at home with her aunt,” she said. “They saw the accused walk up to the back porch. On seeing him Claire Snowie ran into the toilet and hid.

“He was then observed by the aunt to be striking the porch door with a hammer, smashing six panes of glass in Georgianstyle windows at the side of the door.”

Snowie then put the hammer in a garage and left the property.

Defence solicitor Neil Hay said his client had panicked after receiving a call which said his wife was unwell.

He said: “Mr Snowie did not know that another adult was in the house and didn’t think he would have been phoned if another adult was there.

“He attended the house as quickly as possible, went to the door, found it wouldn’t open and went to an outhouse to find a tool, perhaps a screwdriver, to force it open somehow.”

Sheriff Robertson asked the Crown why it had chosen to bring the case to court.

He said: “I’m having some trouble here. Just where is the criminality here?

“What if this had been a neighbour who receives a call from a young child, mother very unwell?”

Mrs Knox said that the case had been brought because Mrs Snowie was left in fear and alarm by her husband’s reckless behaviour.

She could not disprove that Snowie had been phoned by a family member.

Snowie was then formally admonished by the sheriff.

In 2001 the former waste disposal tycoon’s family business was paid £38 million for the disposal of millions of carcasses dring the foot and mouth outbreak.

The family later sold the company for around £40m.

In 2008 Snowie and Claire fought and lost a landmark battle to ban ramblers from entering Boquhan Estate.

They had asked for land to be exempt from the Scottish Parliament’s right-toroam provisions so their children, then young, could exercise their ponies in peace.