PC covered up threat to torch a pub
Shamed officer is spared jail
A POLICE officer who covered up threats to firebomb a pub and kneecap the landlord narrowly avoided a prison sentence yesterday.
PC Colin Rae, 31, feared his bosses would discover the warning was linked to an unauthorised cash-in-hand job he had carried out at the pub while off duty.
Rae, and a friend who cannot be named for legal reasons, had helped to fit decking at the Kings Arms Hotel in Fenwick, Ayrshire, run by Jill and David Grant.
But the men were never paid their £2,500 fee after a dispute over the quality of the workmanship.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard that Rae’s friend allegedly confronted Mr Grant, telling him: ‘This will be dealt with one way or another.’
Depute fiscal Susan Brown, prosecuting, said Mr Grant then received a phone call from a man with a Glasgow accent, who issued threats towards him, saying ‘he would be kneecapped and the pub burned down with him and his wife inside’.
The matter was reported to police and PC Paul Gartland was informed of the ‘threats’.
He radioed his control room and Rae, who overheard the message, contacted his colleague asking him to hand over the inquiry.
Rae then went to the Kings Arms and reassured Mr Grant that he did not need to pay the money and that he would sort it out.
Detectives then discovered that the serious threat reported by Mrs Grant had not been logged or updated properly. Rae admitted failing to make a crime report, entering other officers’ beats and trawling police computers without authority.
Rae, formerly of Fenwick but now of Dumbarton, admitted neglect of duty and two charges of breaching data protection laws in May 2012, rather than an alternative charge of attempting to pervert justice, which could have resulted in a lengthy jail term.
Defence advocate Mark Moir said his client had been a ‘good officer’ but had since lost his job and career.
Sentencing Rae to 300 hours’ community service, Sheriff Alistair Watson told him it was ‘absolutely essential’ to society that the public had faith in criminal allegations being investigated ‘fully and honestly’.
The Crown Office said reports were still being considered against two men, aged 31 and 51, in connection with alleged offences in 2012.