Drug dealer busted with £300,000 of cocaine is behind a drone company which has been bankrolled with taxpayers' cash ... Kieran Hope's firm won funding from the Oil and Gas Technology Centre ... But critics say it is 'unacceptable' to keep details secret from the public

A DRUG dealer caught with £300,000 worth of cocaine in a police organised crime operation has been given taxpayers’ money to grow his drone business.

Kieran Hope, 29, was handed a three-year prison sentence in 2014 and two years later launched Air Control Entech (ACE) which uses drones to conduct inspections in the oil and gas industry.

A year later, he secured backing from The Oil & Gas Technology Centre (OGTC) which is funded by the Scottish and UK governments, academia and industry.

There are no rules against convicted criminals from receiving public money but concerns have been raised over the OGTC’s refusal to disclose how much it gave to Hope’s firm.

Hope ... boss of Air Control Entech

In response to STV News, they said that all such deals are subject to ‘non disclosure agreements’ (NDA) which are typically used in legal agreements to protect commercially sensitive information.

NDAs came in for criticism when high street retail tycoon Sir Philip Green used them to gag female employees who accused him of wrongdoing, which he denies.

MSP Liam McArthur, Scottish Lib Dem justice spokesman, said: “I think what we need is transparency in terms of the public money that has been spent on behalf of the Scottish and UK governments.

“I think the use of non disclosure agreements will strike many as inappropriate and unacceptable in these circumstances. I think the public have a right to know how public funds are being spent.”

This view is shared by Graeme Pearson, former director general of the Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency and ex-Labour MSP and justice spokesman.

He said: “I think that where public money is being spent there is a duty on organisations to show the public how that money was used and where that money was invested. The notion that it’s none of our business is unacceptable.”

After Hope admitted drug dealing, Detective Inspector Douglas Norrie of the organised crime and counter terrorism unit, said his jail sentence “is a reflection of the seriousness with which our courts view this type of offence”.

An STV News investigation has also established:

·         Hope used £60,000 of ‘savings and loans’ to start ACE – raising questions about the source of funding.

·         No proceeds of crime action was taken against Hope following his conviction.

·         In a 2018 magazine interview, he claimed to have quit his job to launch the drone business.

·         Hope also co-owned another drone company with a friend who was last year also jailed for drug dealing.

OGTC was launched in 2017 to fund technological developments to maximise North Sea oil and gas yields and over 10 years will receive £90million from the UK Treasury via the Scottish government.

Speaking to politicians and senior business figures at its launch, founding chairman and billionaire businessman Sir Ian Wood said OGTC would seek the ‘next generation of solutions’.

One of the first recipients of investment was Hope’s Aberdeen-based ACE which says that hi-tech drones can carry out offshore inspection work more safely and cheaper than by traditional methods.

Hope’s social media accounts show a party-loving young man with a taste for fast cars and exotic holidays. He was often photographed alongside Liston Pacitti – who is now in prison for drug dealing.

Pacitti, 29, ran shops in Arbroath and Montrose selling so-called legal highs between 2013 and 2014. He admitted recklessly supplying psychoactive substances to the danger of life and health. Some customers needed hospital treatment after taking the drugs.

Sentencing him to a four-and-a-half year prison sentence at Dundee Sheriff Court last year, Sheriff Alastair Brown said Pacitti had become "lost to all human decency".

He added: "It is perfectly clear that you were exploiting cynically and with no regard for the effects on your customers or the wider community what you thought was a gap in the law in order to make significant amounts of money.”

Weeks before Hope formed ACE in 2016, he also launched a sister company called Air Control Global Group (ACGG).

Companies House records show that Hope and Pacitti each owned 25 per cent of ACGG, which was dissolved five months ago.

Hampden ... Liston Pacitti and Kieran Hope at the football

The OGTC declined an interview request, but in a statement said Hope was “entirely transparent about his previous conviction” and that ACE “was carefully evaluated in line with our process for every investment decision and all conditions have been met throughout”.

They added: “We have legal agreements in place with each of the companies we work with and are unable to disclose the sums invested.”

In a business magazine interview last year, Hope appears to have been less candid about his criminality.

The magazine stated that Hope bought a drone “for fun” in 2015 – the year after he was jailed for three years.

This “eureka moment” apparently inspired him to “quit his job in the oil industry within weeks and plough £60,000 in savings and loans into a new venture, Air Control Entech”.

The magazine also stated that Hope has worked in various countries “before he returned to Aberdeen in late 2016” – making no mention of his prison time.

Magazine ... 2018 interview does not mention criminality

Former police chief Pearson questioned these claims and why no proceeds of crime action was taken against Hope.

He said: “If someone is convicted of supplying drugs and being engaged in the business of drug dealing I would have expected that asset would have been recovered and would have been returned to the taxpayers of Scotland.

“I would have hoped that the agency [OGTC] would have taken further steps to ensure that the money was invested in the right places and this man might be the right person to invest in, but it should be done in a situation of openness and honesty.”

Hope appears in OGTC promotional videos and was introduced to politicians including the PM and local Conservative MP Ross Thomson.

Pictured with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a 2016 social media post, Hope wrote: “Just had a lovely chat with the first minister about driving business forward in the economic downturn.”

Hope ... talking business with First Minister

We asked the Scottish Government if it was aware of Hope’s background and whether using NDAs was appropriate.

Energy Minister Paul Wheelhouse said: “We have no involvement in specific funding decisions made by the OGTC, who follow their own due diligence process for all applications, nor would we have any input to commercial or contractual decisions the OGTC enter into.”

Hope: I was 'in the wrong crowd' before arrest

Kieran Hope declined to be interviewed by STV News or to answer any of our questions.

But after engaging a PR adviser he spoke about his conviction with an energy industry trade publication.

He told Energy Voice that the £300,000 of cocaine was not his and the reason he did not appeal was that it could have resulted in an increased sentence.

He said that he had been in with the "wrong crowd" and that his nine months behind bars were "very lonely".

After moving to an open prison at the end of 2014 he joined a rehabilitation programme which allowed him to go out and work.

He said the company which initially hired him then gave him a full-time role on his release from prison. He says this was followed by another job before he founded ACE in December 2016.

"I treat people the way I like to be treated," he said. "Being up front and honest is the right way to do that.

"The OGTC was really good about it. A lot of people think you do not deserve a second chance, so it's a case of proving yourself, and that's challenging.

"If you mess up, it does not mean your life is over. You can come back if you work hard and are honest."

Following the STV News report, Hope posted on social media that for two years a "bitter, evil, twisted person" had been trying to "sabotage my life and my business".

Drone boss Hope ... with the FM and Prime Minister Theresa May

A version of this report was first published by STV News on March 20, 2019