Garage boss sues police for £200,000 after being branded ‘career criminal’

David Lyons, 52, said his record only had some motoring offences on it, yet the police had made out that he was “involved in serious and organised crime”.

Mr Lyons insisted that police intelligence about him was false and had never been seriously investigated.

However, it had become public when the chief constable, Stephen House, used it to object to the renewal of an MoT licence for his garage business.

The chief constable denies that he defamed Mr Lyons, and asked a judge yesterday at the Court of Session in Edinburgh to dismiss the damages claim against him. Lady Smith will give her ruling later.

Mr Lyons’s garage, Applerow Motors in Cadder, Glasgow, featured in a high-profile gangland murder in 2006. Two gunmen wearing “old men” masks entered and opened fire, killing Michael Lyons, 21, and seriously injuring his cousin, Stephen Lyons, 21, and a friend, Robert Pickett, 41. The dead man was Mr Lyons’s nephew.

Two men were later convicted of the murder, described by the trial judge as a “cold-blooded, premeditated execution”, and given record jail terms of a minimum of 35 years. Those were later reduced to 30 years on appeal.

In the defamation case, Mr Lyons said that in 2007, the chief constable objected to the granting of a second-hand dealer’s licence to a man, Marc McCandless, on the grounds that people who were not fit and proper persons would benefit from the licence being awarded. One such named person was Mr Lyons.

The letter of objection had stated that intelligence held by Strathclyde Police “provides that [Mr Lyons] is involved in serious and organised crime, including the trafficking and supply of class-A drugs”.

In 2010, the same representations were made when Mr Lyons sought a renewal of his MoT licence. The renewal was refused and lawyers for Mr Lyons said he had lost his licence “as a result of the police continuing to represent that he was a career criminal”.

They added: “He is from a family whose various members have serious criminal records. Despite this fact, he has no relevant previous convictions and has led a straight life. He has a spent conviction for reset which is over 30 years old. In addition, he accepts he has convictions for road traffic offences.”

The allegations against Mr Lyons had attracted media coverage and public attention, it was said. He had tried to protect his reputation by contacting the press and denying any criminality, but the police had refused to deny their allegations.

The claims had become widespread in the area where he lived, in Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, and “public warnings” had been posted through letter boxes, that “you have a drug dealer in your street”.

Mr Lyons said police intelligence would, in general, contain defamatory allegations about people, and the Data Protection Act required that the information be accurate and kept up to date. In his case, the information was neither accurate nor up to date. It was false and had not been the subject of serious investigation.

In his defences, Mr House said he was entitled to make representations in both instances, and that the officers concerned acted “lawfully, reasonably and in good faith” although Mr Lyons had not been charged with any crime relating to any matter in the letters. The chief constable contended that there was no obligation on him to make reparation to Mr Lyons.