Scotland’s highest-paid public transport boss drives an unlawful cloned automobile, a Sunday Mail investigation can reveal.
Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) chief govt Gordon Maclennan had a VW Passat in his workers automobile park and one other at his vacation dwelling – each with the identical SF02 ORB registration.
Final week we photographed the £153,000-a-year public sector director, 69, driving a cloned silver Passat at his retreat on the Isle of Lewis.
His police officer son Stuart was sitting within the passenger seat.
However on the similar time an nearly equivalent blue Passat automobile with the identical reg was pictured at his workplace – 300 miles away in Glasgow metropolis centre.
Public data present a blue model of the automobile is taxed and MOT-ed with the DVLA.
Cloning is a extremely unlawful observe typically utilized by organised criminals to commit an offence which
is later related to one other automobile.
If a reliable automobile’s registration is positioned on one in all an identical make and mannequin, the rip-off may be used to keep away from highway tax, insurance coverage and MOT prices.
Once we confronted Maclennan – who additionally part-owns a motor restore storage – he tried to
deny the whole lot.
Our reporter requested whether or not he had a cloned automobile on Lewis with the identical plate as an identical automobile on the SPT workplace and he answered: “That’s not true.”
We requested which half wasn’t true and he responded: “All of it.”
He then lied when requested whether or not he drove a Passat with the registration in query on Lewis and stated: “No.”
When questioned on the automobile on the SPT’s workplace, he responded: “The place are you getting this story from?” He then hung up the cellphone.
We photographed Maclennan and his son leaving their seaside cottage in distant Dalmore and driving three miles to church within the close by village of Carloway on Lewis.
They attended a service and returned dwelling after an hour, with the businessman once more driving the automobile he denied any data of.
The automobile was used on at the least one different event over the identical weekend we pictured the blue Passat with the identical registration at Maclennan’s workplace.
A police supply stated: “Cloning is unlawful. There isn’t any query that having two automobiles with the identical registration is in opposition to the legislation.
“Then there’s the query of driving a cloned automobile which won’t have highway tax, MOT or insurance coverage. On high of all that, there’s the query of the true identification of the automobile and whether or not something unlawful has gone on in buying or altering its identification.
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“For somebody with an especially excessive wage in a extremely accountable public-facing govt job, it’s unimaginable they’d do that to avoid wasting perhaps £600 a 12 months – however then individuals do very unusual issues.”
Maclennan is known to have travelled to Lewis on Tuesday, August 2, in a van with Stuart, who’s a police officer in Glasgow. Final 12 months his son – who additionally owns an occasions firm – was reprimanded for working as an Elvis impersonator at a celebration throughout lockdown.
The Maclennans have shut household connections to Lewis and have had a house there for a few years.
(Picture: Phil Dye)
Google Earth photographs relationship again to 2009 present a silver VW Passat parked on the Dalmore property. In addition to being CEO of the SPT, Maclennan has held a string of directorships through the years.
He’s additionally co-owner of Millar Motors, an MOT and repairs storage in Kilsyth, Lanarkshire.
Maclennan got here underneath fireplace in 2016 after it emerged the SPT had bought dozens of taxpayer-owned buses at a fraction of their authentic value.
Minibuses purchased for between £82,000 and £84,000 had been later bought for as little as £450.
The transport physique had spent £7.5million shopping for up greater than 90 buses to kind its personal fleet from firms together with Allied Autos, the place Maclennan had declared he was beforehand a board member.
A test of Firms Home data yesterday confirmed Maclennan was appointed a director of Allied Autos Group Ltd in March final 12 months.
SPT accounts present he was paid £153,527 final 12 months. A complete of £29,631 was added to his pension. It means he’s paid about the identical quantity as FM Nicola Sturgeon and greater than Transport Scotland CEO Roy Brannen, whose wage is about £100,000 a 12 months.
Once we put our allegations to the SPT, a spokeswoman stated: “We don’t touch upon particular person worker personal issues.”
A spokesman for automobile registration company the DVLA confirmed it was an offence to have the identical plate displayed on two totally different autos.
He stated: “It’s a authorized requirement {that a} automobile registration quantity can solely be displayed on the automobile that has been registered to take action by the DVLA.
“Displaying the improper registration quantity is an offence.”
Automobile registration fraud can lead to a heavy tremendous or two years in jail.
In 2015 it was reported that SPT administrators, together with Maclennan, had billed taxpayers for nearly £50,000 in journey, resort and leisure prices that by no means appeared on their revealed bills.
The Scottish Authorities declined to remark.
The Sunday Mail can present Police Scotland with a full file on Maclennan’s actions.
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