Bus firm tycoon, 80, charged over human trafficking offences
STAGECOACH founder Dame Ann Gloag, her husband and two other family members have been charged in connection with human trafficking offences.
The 80-year- old multi-millionaire and philanthropist was charged after a police interview on Thursday, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Dame Ann – one of Scotland’s richest women – was accompanied by her husband David McCleary, 72, when she attended Livingston police station in West Lothian. Her stepdaughter Sarah Gloag, 47, and son-in-law Paul McNeil were also questioned by detectives investigating allegations of human trafficking, and all four were charged.
Last night a Police Scotland spokesman said: ‘Four individuals were charged in connection with an investigation into alleged human trafficking and immigration offences. A report will be sent to the procurator fiscal.’
A spokesman for Dame Ann said: ‘While we cannot comment on the details of an ongoing investigation, Dame Ann Gloag strongly disputes the malicious allegations that have been made against her, her foundation and members of her family, and will vigorously defend herself.’
Sources close to Dame Ann said she and her husband had been victims of ‘collusion’ by eight people who had concocted a ‘ cock-and-story’.
The insider said: ‘This investigation has been a Kafkaesque nightmare for the last two years.
‘People who Dame Ann and her family tried to help turned on them and colluded in making complaints that were baseless – it is absolutely shocking.’
It is understood the allegations were made by people who were brought to Scotland as part of Dame Ann’s charity work. The Gloag Foundation supports ‘projects that prevent or relieve poverty and encourage the advancement of education, health and religion in the UK and overseas’.
Dame Ann, a former nurse and co-founder of international trans-injured port company Stagecoach, served as an executive director with the firm until May 2000. She founded Freedom From Fistula in 2008 and expanded the charity to help more than 20,000 women and children across Africa.
The charity is dedicated to helping women and girls who are and left incontinent following prolonged, obstructed childbirth – by providing free surgical repairs.
Dame Ann, who has six children, 13 grandchildren and two greatgrandchildren, previously helped establish a hospital in Malawi and also founded Kenya Children’s Homes in 2002 which educates and cares for more than 1,500 children every year. In 2019, she was awarded the honour of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire by the Queen.
Dame Ann has a combined worth of £730 million together with her brother, Sir Brian Souter, 68.
Before her business career, she worked as a unit sister in Bridge of Earn Hospital, Perthshire, where she met her future husband, Robin Gloag, while he was a patient.
By the 1970s, the couple were running a small caravan sales business. But, after 20 years in nursing, Dame Ann Gloag branched out. Along with her brother, the Gloags bought a bus for £425.
The entrepreneurs were invited by a construction company to provide transport for workers travelling to building sites. The brother and sister realised the potential and bought two more buses.
The venture took off and Stagecoach Group is now an international company operating buses, trains, trams and ferries.
Robin Gloag was killed in a car crash in December 2007.