Russell Findlay - @RussellFindlay1

A POLICE officer was forced to resign after a colleague allegedly called Crimestoppers to try to smear her. The PC was told to quit after she was falsely accused of being in the pocket of gangsters. When police chiefs discovered she was innocent three months later, they asked her to return with full back pay. The law graduate received a personal apology from then chief constable Campbell Corrigan after being summoned to Strathclyde Police HQ. The 27–year–old was reinstated and quizzed as part of a probe into the conduct of Superintendent Steven Reed. Reed has been suspended for the past year and a report into alleged criminality is still being considered by Crown Office prosecutors. The ex–PC's career in the force was ruined after she unwittingly found herself in the company of gangland twins Bryan and James Hanlon, 30, during a night out in February 2012. She reported it to her boss and a Professional Standards Unit probe cleared her of wrongdoing. ...

A DETERMINED driver whose uninsured £65,000 Audi was stolen from his garage was astonished when he tracked it down 40 miles away. The sporty R8 was swiped from the Stirling home of Ronnie Hutton at 4.30am on Thursday, November 23. Police told him the car had been seen driving into Edinburgh so he and a friend embarked on a ‘needle in a haystack’ mission to find it. At 3pm that afternoon, Ronnie discovered it stashed on a street in Colinton. The retired Ministry of Defence mechanic, who served in Afghanistan and spent nine years saving up for the Audi, said: “ I knew it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack but it’s my pride and joy and I had to do something. “I’m a very happy man. People are asking me for this week’s lottery numbers. “My friend runs a vehicle recovery business so he knows the most common areas where stolen cars are hidden. “We had a list of around 15 postcodes and I started at one side of the city and he went to the other. ...

RANGERS legend Graeme Souness and a former bankrupt are behind a multi million-pound bid to build thousands of houses on green belt land owned by the family of a late Tory minister. The ex-Scotland star and his son Fraser Souness, 36, want planning chiefs to agree to the major EuroPark development beside the M8 motorway in Lanarkshire. Their business partner is one-time bankrupt Scott Gillespie, 43, a member of the Gillespie mining dynasty who went bust owing £60million. Campaigners have vowed to block EuroPark which they say would destroy three square miles of green belt. Michael McBride, secretary of Cairnhill Community Council, said: " We'll fight tooth and nail to prevent the loss of what is effectively a country park. This development would lead to pollution and urban sprawl ." The land - between the villages of Carnbroe and Calderbank - is owned by two daughters of former home secretary and Margaret Thatcher ally Willie Whitelaw, who died in 199...

ONE of the country's top policing figures has said he visited an adultery website out of an interest in data protection issues. Kenneth Hogg, who starts as the Scottish Police Authority's interim chief officer tomorrow, also said he paid the Ashley Madison website a one-off fee after being informed his contact details had been " captured " by his online browsing. He added: "I have never used the service provided by Ashley Madison, nor any services provided by any companies akin to it. " Ashley Madison - whose slogan was " Life is Short. Have an Affair " - was an online dating website for married people who wished to cheat on a spouse. It was run by Canadian firm Avid Life Media and claimed to have nearly 40 million users across the globe. Potential cheaters could pay for credits for the purpose of sending messages and taking part in chat sessions. However, the site nosedived in July 2015 after hackers stole over 9.7 gigaby...