Couple attempted to extort cash from council worker

A COUPLE who attempted to ­extort cash from an amateur glamour photographer by threatening to expose his ­allegedly sleazy lifestyle to his ­employers are facing lengthy prison sentences.

Edinburgh High Court. Picture: TSPL

Garry Faulds, 21, and his ­fiancée Laura Colquhoun, 17, hatched a plot to force the 53-year-old man to hand over large amounts of cash.

The High Court in Edinburgh heard that the man – who cannot be named for legal reasons – spent more than a year taking photographs of Colquhoun, an aspiring model.

He also said that she had ­repeatedly performed a sex act on him and was receiving £150 per photo session.

But the teenager allowed her boyfriend – who was wearing a balaclava and a blue boilersuit – to enter the senior local government employee’s Edinburgh home in August last year.

Once inside, Faulds tied the man’s arms, legs, gagged him with Gaffa tape and threatened him with a blowtorch.

Faulds also repeatedly struck the man and told him he was a member of an Ulster loyalist terror group who could cause him serious harm.

He also said he would tell the man’s employers that he was taking illegal photographs of underage girls.

The man has never been charged or prosecuted in connection with the allegations made by Faulds.

The pair were only caught after the photographer notified his employers. They brought in the police, who swooped on Faulds and Colquhoun days after the attack.

Faulds and Colquhoun, of Paisley, Renfrewshire, were convicted yesterday of a charge of robbing, assaulting and threatening to extort cash from the man on 23 August last year.

Colquhoun wept and shook as prosecution lawyer David Taylor told the court that she had no previous convictions.

They will be sentenced at the High Court on 4 April.