Craig Whyte’s housekeepers found guilty of theft

Two former housekeepers for ex-Rangers owner Craig Whyte have been convicted of stealing thousands of pounds worth of items from his Highland castle.

Jane Hagan, 51, and her husband Terence Horan, 54, denied taking the items from Castle Grant, near Grantown on Spey.

They were each fined £1,000 after a five-day trial.

But the sheriff criticised some of Mr Whyte’s evidence, which he said included “matters which were perhaps open to question.”

Inverness Sheriff Court was told Hagan and Horan had taken expensive jewellery, pens, a quad bike, clay pigeon trap, furniture and other goods and stored them in a container and a barn.

A letter containing an alleged confession by the couple, as well as potentially-embarrassing revelations about Mr Whyte, had to be read out by the former Rangers owner during the trial.

Sheriff Jamie Gilchrist questioned the circumstances surrounding the letter’s recovery by Whyte and his girlfriend from the couple’s computer, and said: “It would be difficult to be satisfied that the letter had not been altered.”

However, Mr Whyte’s estranged wife Kim and her friend Linda Cameron gave evidence that they had heard Hagan and Horan saying they intended to take items of high value from Castle Grant because they had not been paid.

This, the sheriff said, provided strong support of Mr Whyte’s testimony that he had not given the pair an instruction to store items on his behalf in a container they rented to prevent Sheriff’s Officers or his wife from seizing them.