The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Man evicted from camp on the A9 returns.
Drifter returns to favourite roadside location in old Fiat Panda car
A man evicted from his roadside encampment two years ago has returned to the site on the A9.
Charles Ingram spent three years at Layby 52, which lies just south of the House of Bruar on the Perth to Inverness section, before Transport Scotland took measures to remove him.
Mr Ingram has since spent the last two years drifting between locations, most recently in the Rannoch area.
The pensioner, who is in his 70s, declined to speak at length when approached yesterday, but indicated that he intends to remain at the layby for as long as possible.
During his previous stay Mr Ingram erected a number of tents on a grass area behind the layby, but is now staying in his car.
But as snow began to fall on the Bruar area yesterday afternoon he said the heater in his 14-year-old Fiat Panda no longer works.
Mr Ingram was forcibly evicted from the layby in September 2015.
During an altercation with court officials sent to enforce the order, he struck Roderick Stevenson with a mug, causing him to bleed from the head.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis fined him £1,000 and ordered him to pay £100 compensation, with well-wishers later setting up a fund to pay the court costs.
Mr Ingram first set up camp at the site in 2012 after reportedly losing his money in a business dispute, initially living out of his Mercedes 220.
He became a familiar sight to motorists on the Perth to Inverness road but officials said they had been forced to take action because his camp had grown and become more of a distraction. The A9 was closed while the camp was moved.
The pensioner’s removal sparked outrage on social media, with “A9 man” becoming a trending topic on Facebook.
Some people claimed to have witnessed his belongings being thrown into a skip.