Gun twist in Usher case

A SCOTTISH aristocrat battling a powerful law firm to restore his family’s fortunes has had to hand over his shotgun and firearms licence to the police.

Stuart Usher’s dispute with Edinburgh-based Brodies was the subject of last week’s Cutting Edge documentary on Channel 4. During the programme, Mr Usher said he sometimes felt like taking his gun into Edinburgh and nailing a few lawyers.

Mr Usher was visited at his home near Jedburgh yesterday by two officers from the Lothian and Borders force. They told him that a complaint had been made as a result of the comments he had made in front of the cameras. An inquiry was being conducted into the matter, but in the meantime he was asked to hand over his weapon and licence.

He said: "For a moment, I thought about telling them to get lost, but I knew there would be a hoo-ha if I did."

Mr Usher was the founder of the Scotland Against Crooked Lawyers pressure group and makes no secret of his vitriolic dislike for the legal profession.

He said yesterday: "What I said is absolutely true. I would like to nail a few of them. As a profession, I think they are inherently dishonest and motivated only by self-interest. But as a law-abiding man, there is no question I would ever act out the fantasy."

Mr Usher has issued a writ against Brodies for 45 million, for what he believes is the eighth share of the family wealth he ought to have benefited from, had the vast Usher fortune not disappeared.

He lives in a three-bedroom home within sight of the family’s former seat, the 6,500-acre Wells estate, and runs a burger stand on the A68.

The Ushers were among Scotland's richest families, making a fortune from whisky. But fortunes appeared to be depleted after 1962 when successive family heads both had Downs syndrome and lawyers were appointed to run their affairs.

The trustees were Mackenzie and Black who were incorporated into Brodies, one of Scotland's most powerful firms, in the 1970s.