Builder fined for razing house owned by Gloag
Stagecoach tycoon’s empty mansion was home to bats and birds
A DEMOLITION expert has been fined after knocking down a fivebedroom mansion owned by Scots tycoon Dame Ann Gloag.
David Kerr, 74, was charged with breaking wildlife laws by damaging or destroying a bat roost and a blue tit’s nest while Glassingall House, near Dunblane, Perthshire, was being knocked down.
He pleaded guilty to the charge at Stirling Sheriff Court – but claimed he had been following the instructions of two men acting as representatives of Dame Ann, the co-founder of Stagecoach Group and Scotland’s richest woman.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony accepted that Kerr had ‘to some extent’ been ‘duped’ into carrying out the demolition. The court heard he is now being sued by Glassingall Estates for ‘hundreds of thousands of pounds’ and has not been paid for the demolition work.
Glassingall House was purchased for £850,000 in March 2018 by Glassingall Estate Ltd, a company wholly owned by Dame Ann’s Highland and Universal Investments.
Prosecutor Karon Rollo told the court: ‘The owner is Ann Gloag, of Stagecoach.’ She said that, at the time the house was pulled down, no demolition warrant had been issued or requested.
Set in what the estate agent called ‘a mature estate landscape’, the property boasted all-weather tennis courts, a swimming pool, paddocks and woodland.
Dame Ann said in 2019 that she planned to donate estate land to Active Stirling – Stirling Council’s arm’s-length sports management company – to be turned into an outward-bound centre. A preplanning application was submitted for 135 holiday chalets and a sports complex. But the 18th century house lay empty for two years, and the court heard that by 2020 it was home to ‘a variety of wildlife’, including bats and birds.
Kerr, described as an experienced demolition contractor, was then hired by Graham Gillespie and his brother Alfie, who were ‘friends of the Gloag family’, to knock it down.
He received a phone call in June 2020 from Graham Gillespie saying: ‘Want to do a wee job for me – knocking down a house for Ann Gloag?’
Joanne Whitelaw, defending, said: ‘He was told, it’s Ann Gloag, of course all the paperwork would be in place. His position is that he was acting on instructions from Graham Gillespie and his brother Alfie Gillespie. He was told by the Gillespies themselves they were representatives of Ann Gloag.’
The court heard Kerr met the Gillespies at a motorway service station before going to the site.
Miss Whitelaw added: ‘He would not have proceeded if he had been aware of any roosts or animals in place.’
But members of the public – including an ecologist – witnessed a bat in distress during the demolition on June 11 after going to the property to look at newts living in the swimming pool.
Other locals later went to the scene and saw two blue tit chicks on the ground on the patio. One died and other ‘agitated blue tits’ were seen flying about.
The house was then seen on fire, with Kerr and a big yellow digger with his name on it close by.
Police and firefighters attended, and two Range Rovers also arrived. Three men got out, one of whom identified himself as Anthony Gloag, Ann Gloag’s grandson. He said he was the ‘project manager’ and was unaware of the fire. The other two men were identified as the Gillespie brothers.
Kerr was arrested later, and Miss Rollo said: ‘He stated he had been employed by Graham Gillespie to knock the house down.’
Kerr, of Castlecary, near Cumbernauld, pleaded guilty to intentionally or recklessly destroying the nest of a blue tit while in use or being built, and damaging or destroying a bat roost, in contravention of wildlife legislation.
Sheriff Keith O’Mahony fined Kerr £740 and said: ‘I accept that to some extent you were duped into carrying out this demolition.
‘Nevertheless, you didn’t check that the appropriate permissions and warrants were in place.’
A spokesman for Dame Ann said yesterday: ‘We are unable to comment due to a live civil action relative to this case.’
‘Appropriate permissions’