Downfall of a millionaire Tory donor
A dashing tycoon worth £41m, his empire once spanned the globe. Yet now he’s a DJ on community radio (and the private jet is long gone...)
THE staccato jabberings of the disc jockey sound somewhat out of place in between the soft rock tunes aired l ate on a Monday evening. And his habit of lending his own wobbly vocal to the play- out of each song may not find favour with every listener.
But let us be frank. In broadcasting terms, this is not exactly the big time. These are the not-so-smooth sounds of Dunoon Community Radio in Argyll as we head towards the midnight hour – and this is the voice of Malcolm Scott, a DJ apparently happy just to be on air.
The show is certainly a curious berth for a businessman whose private jet once flew David Cameron and members of his cabinet up and down the country.
Few would guess from his on-air patter that this is the flamboyant former treasurer of the Scottish Conservative Party, a tycoon who was regularly named in the Sunday Times Rich List, who had his own speedboat, a wine collection, business interests in the Bahamas and British Virgin Islands and a property portfolio worth millions in Edinburgh and Fife.
Alas, Mr Scott’s business empire is not as it once was. It collapsed spectacularly three years ago, leaving him £41million in debt and scrambling to salvage whatever he could for himself and his family. In the process, he ran a coach and horses through financial regulations.
That the plot was so obvious and rumbled so easily only heaped further humiliation on the businessman, once seen as a dashing blend of Boris Johnson and Michael Heseltine.
The multi-millionaire who seemed to have everything now has a four-day-a-week community radio show, a Facebook page with 50 likes and not a great deal else.
A string of fabulous homes, including a ninebedroom mansion with a swimming pool and tennis court, are all now sold – several of them for considerably less than he paid for them.
The roster of businesses which once put his estimated wealth at £100million are all in liquidation or dissolved.
And, most galling of all, the failure of his businesses has not just made a bankrupt of him. His parents, David and Florence – successful business people in their own right – have each been sequestrated after guaranteeing £10million of their son’s debts. His wife Rona is also bankrupt and, according to evidence given in court, in receipt of working tax credit.
Now living in leased accommodation in Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, they say a friend has to help them pay their £800-a-month rent. ‘I earn a certain amount and any shortfall they pay,’ explained Mrs Scott at a ‘public examination’ heari ng i n Edinburgh Sheriff Court. ‘ There’s good months and bad months,’ she added.
Her husband, meanwhile, has been ‘subsisting’ on £100 a week.
Last week, the 51-year-old fatherof-three was reprimanded in court for ‘serious misbehaviour’ in squirrelling away assets which he knew should have been declared as part of the bankruptcy process.
A five-and-a-half-year Bankruptcy Restrictions Order made by Sheriff William Holligan now prohibits him from acting as a company director or obtaining credit of more than £500 – or any amount if he has debts of £1,000 or more.
He is also banned from nomination, election or holding office as a member of a local authority.
In short, the f ormer pupil of Edinburgh’s Fettes College who, just a few years ago, was a poster boy for a Tory revival in Scotland, has been utterly disgraced – even if you would never guess such a thing from his cheesy radio show.
The chiselled entrepreneur with the tousled, blond locks was perhaps always too good to be true for the party. He was a close ally of former leader William Hague, had entertained former defence secretary Liam Fox at home – and enjoyed splashing out on his own entertainment too. For his 40th birthday he is said to have hired rock star Bryan Ferry.
Home, meanwhile, was a fabulous early Georgian manor house, beautifully restored throughout to meet the lifestyle requirements of a family accustomed to the very best.
His business portfolio’s roots may have been in the grain business which he bought from his father in the 1990s, but it expanded into many more colourful areas. There was the £40million luxury hotel in the French ski resort of Courchevel, luxury housing and property developments, a