Labour candidate suspended from race in wake of his charges for motoring offences
A LABOUR General Election candidate has been suspended after being stopped for alleged drink-driving at the wheel of a Maserati.
Sumon Hoque, 32, who was standing in Alex Salmond’s old seat of Banff and Buchan, was also charged with driving without a licence and other motoring offences.
Mr Hoque, 32, of Aberdeen, appeared at the city’s sheriff court yesterday charged with the string of driving offences.
He is accused of driving the vehicle without a valid MOT certificate and without a licence while over the legal limit. Mr Hoque allegedly drove the car, which had a private registration plate, along Bridge Street in Aberdeen on May 1 last year.
It is claimed he had 44 micrograms in 100 millilitres of breath, with the then legal limit 35 micrograms.
He had no MOT certificate in place for the vehicle and he was not the holder of a licence authorising him to drive the car.
Mr Hoque is further claimed to have caused an obstruction with the motor on Bridge Street in the city.
It is alleged that he also failed to give information of who was driving the car to a police officer on the same date.
He denied the charges yesterday and will go on trial next month.
Mr Hoque vowed to push economic development and fight for more affordable housing and a better NHS health service when he was selected as a candidate.
The Aberdeen University graduate is an active community worker and board director at the Grampian Regional Equality Council.
A spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party said: “Sumon Hoque has been suspended from representing the Labour Party and we have, therefore, withdrawn support from him as the general election candidate.”
Banff and Buchan, which Mr Salmond held for 23 years until the 2010 General Election, was retained by the SNP after the First Minister stepped down.