Rant at top hotel
A top executive was fined £1600 after a drunken - and racist - rant at staff while holidaying at the worldfamous Gleneagles Hotel at the weekend.
Fifty-six-year-old Stefan Hutter had been golfing at the five-star hotel, but lost the plot while drinking at the 19th hole and began abusing four different members of staff.
Described in court as the managing director of a company which has international interests, with clients in the Middle East and Pakistan, he had been taking “strong painkillers” for a shoulder injury.
He wasn’t meant to drink on top of his medication, but while in the bar he unleashed a string of vile comments at staff from Indonesia, the Middle East and Armenia.
He also said he “hated Muslims” and “f*** the Arabs”.
He was arrested and spent the night in the police cells before appearing from custody at Perth Sheriff Court on Monday afternoon.
He admitted that on August 20, at Gleneagles Hotel, he behaved in a threatening or abusive manner, shouted in the face of Stevie Seba, pointed at him aggressively and threatened to assault him.
He also racially abused Houssem Belabed, Naim Dehgany and Michael Arshagouni.
Not guilty pleas were accepted to further charges of culpably and recklessly damaging a fire door at the hotel - and refusing to leave the main bar when asked by two members of staff.
Depute fiscal Robbie Brown said the accused appeared to have become involved in an argument on the golf course earlier and later became intoxicated during the evening.
“He was refused alcohol by members of staff, given his state, and he then becomes annoyed or upset by that and basically starts sounding off.”
Two of the staff who were abused are US nationals, although one was of Persian and the other Armenian origin.
Hutter was subsequently arrested, but his attitude appeared to have been that the police should have been out “doing more important things” than imprisoning him for a “minor matter”.
Solicitor Paul Ralph said the accused had gone to Gleneagles for a holiday and had been playing golf with friends.
Because of the effects of the alcohol, combined with the painkillers, he had “no memory” of what had happened.
Referring to the racial comments, Mr Ralph accepted they would have been “unpleasant” but stressed: “They are not views he holds.”
He had no cash in his property but could pay a fine by credit card.
Imposing the penalty, reduced from £2,400 because of the accused’s early guilty pleas, Sheriff Fiona Tait told him: “The court takes a serious view of offences which are racial in nature.”
The level of fine reflected the “particularly unpleasant nature” of the offences.
“Staff should not be subjected to that,” she added.
Hutter, of Sunpec Tower, Remasek Boulevard, Singapore, was given seven days to pay.
He unleashed a string of vile comments at staff