Crown Office tries to speed up FCB investigation

'We are in contact with Strathclyde police about these allegations and the inquiry is ongoing.' The Crown Office.

Crown Office officials investigate FCB security firm which was connected to the Labour Party and allegedly linked to crime

By Jim McBeth in the Scotsman 21 st August 1997

A senior Strathclyde detective and a member of staff from the procurator-fiscal's office in Paisley were summoned to Edinburgh to help "clarify" areas of the police report, which has been submitted at least twice.

Police have been investigating the company for more than a year and pressure has been growing on the Crown Office to act on the findings of the investigation.

That pressure intensified last week when leaks from the scathing report produced by the liquidator who wound up the company last year indicated that more than £320,000 of public money had apparently disappeared to pay, it was suggested, workers who did not exist.

The Crown Office was stung into yesterday's action by criticism made by Charles McLaughlan, a member of the liquidation committee, who said that the liquidator, Colin Hastings, had done his job and "it was time for the Crown Office to do theirs".

Crown officials have twice sent back the police report to ask for clarification on aspects of the investigation.

However, yesterday, Strathclyde Police confirmed that a "senior detective" had attended the meeting in Edinburgh, though they were unable to deal with the specifics of what occurred.

And a spokesman for the procurator-fiscal in Paisley added: "A member of our staff is in Crown Office for a meeting today."

In an official statement, a spokesman for the Crown Office said: "We are in contact with Strathclyde police about these allegations and the inquiry is ongoing."

However, an insider said that while officials had twice asked the police investigators for clarification of some points and more evidence, it was hoped that a decision in the case is imminent.

It cannot come too soon for the disgruntled citizens of Paisley, who have been mystified by the workings of a company described by the council leader, Hugh Henry, as a "running sore".

The community-based company FCB was set up in Ferguslie Park, the gangster heartland of Paisley, in 1989, with almost £200,000 from the public purse.

Controversy dogged its existence, and the local MP for Paisley North, Irene Adams, consistently accused it of being a cover for drug dealing and money laundering. Two Renfrewshire Labour councillors, Harry Revie, an ally of MP Tommy Graham, and Olga Clayton, who has since retired from local politics, were the non- executive directors of the company.

Mr Revie and Ms Clayton, who have been suspended by the Labour Party pending its investigation, claimed that they were unaware of any wrongdoing in the running of the company, which gave jobs to 80 people and won council contracts worth £1 million.

The liquidation committee said it was astonishing that a company, which had received so much money as well as preferential treatment in the awarding of council security contracts, should have gone under.

Mr Hastings, the liquidator, submitted his report to the Crown Office, which is "not normal" unless there something within it which "warrants" an investigation.