A coach driver is claiming police are ‘victimising’ Celtic and Rangers supporter coaches for having alcohol onboard, and is now facing court for refusing to pay a £75 fine.
Jim McNally, a coach driver at Glasgow-based Abbey Coaches, was given the fine in Glasgow’s Panmure Street, when Partick Thistle took on Rangers at Firhill on 15 September.
Says Mr McNally: “Before, the police would come on the coach and just take any drink away and that would be then end of it. But now they are not taking any prisoners.
“There are plain-dressed police officers waiting for someone to get off the coach with alcohol. They’re arresting them and then charging the driver.”
Mr McNally also claims that it is only coaches going to Celtic and/or Rangers games that are being targeted.
“I have driven other clubs’ supporters and haven’t been stopped once. It’s victimisation – it’s just a money-making scheme,” he says.
“I feel that I am not guilty because it’s something that I can’t control. The passengers are bringing alcohol in their holdalls and we’re not allowed to search them or look in their bags.
“You either pay the £75 fine or get taken to court and you will get a criminal record.”
Says Superintendent Alan Murray: “The Criminal Law (Consolidation) (Scotland) Act 1995 makes it an offence to possess alcohol on a coach being used to transport people to designated sporting events and it also makes it an offence for the driver and hirer to allow alcohol on board.
“These checks are carried out at all football matches, and unfortunately this example is just one of many reports of alcohol being carried and consumed on the way to and from these events.”
