A demolition contractor who razed a five-bedroom mansion on a Dunblane estate owned by Stagecoach tycoon Ann Gloag, contravening bat and bird protection laws, escaped with a fine this week after a sheriff said he had been “duped” into carrying out the work.
Seventy-four-year-old David Kerr was said to have acted on the instructions of members of a business dynasty described as “friends of the Gloag family”.
Stirling Sheriff Court heard that Glassingall House, which boasted its own swimming pool, squash court and tennis court, had been vacant for two years prior to the incident, and it had become home to “a variety of wildlife” including bats and birds.
