Ron Culley's lavish lifestyle cost taxpayer £25k

THE lavish taxpayer-funded expenses account of one of Scotland's most senior public servants can be revealed today, showing how he ran up drinks bills at functions of more than £500 and lavished champagne dinners on Scottish MPs.

Between September 2002 and February 2006, Ron Culley, as the then chief executive of Scottish Enterprise Glasgow, charged nearly 25,000 on his personal expense account, enjoying some 158 dinners, lunches or functions on his publicly-funded credit card.

A regular at top Glasgow restaurants such as Rogano's, St Jude's and Chardon D'Or, he lavished thousands of pounds on "hospitality" at charity events, and – in a single year – spent a further 11,750 on travel to Dubai, USA and Paris.

Heavy costs over his time in office included a bill for 472 in "hospitality" at the Quality Scotland Excellence Award lunch in November 2003, which ended late-afternoon only after Culley had paid for 14 bottles of white wine and six bottles of red.

Other hospitality bills included two claims for 454 and 594 respectively at the Glasgow Lord Provost's Burns Supper in 2003 and 2004. On the first occasion, Culley's receipts show he charged for 13 bottles of wine, three glasses of Baileys, three glasses of Cointreau, two Drambuies, a Glenmorangie, and one Amaretto.

Another lavish evening on the public purse occurred in March 2003 when Culley entertained a group of ten Glasgow MPs in the House of Common's private Churchill room, at a cost of 404. Culley's total expenses were six times higher than the man who succeeded him, Stuart Patrick, and do not include his travel costs, which helped pay for visits to Dubai and the USA, along with first class rail tickets.

The fresh revelations come after Culley's spending was placed under scrutiny earlier this year about his time at Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT). He joined this body after leaving Scottish Enterprise Glasgow in 2006. He resigned from SPT earlier this year due to ill health.

The claims included 1,700 in expenses for travel, meals and accommodation in Manchester on the same day as Rangers' appearance in the 2008 Uefa Cup final. Culley, however, has denied any wrong-doing and argued that all his expenses were independently authorised.

His expenses at Scottish Enterprise Glasgow were released last week under Freedom of Information laws, following inquires by this newspaper.

Taking one month, January 2004, the enterprise chief began with a dinner at the Glasgow Moat House to "discuss future strategy planning and board role". The bill came to 178.

On the eighth, he held an "Executive team review pre-planning day" at Crutherland House Hotel in East Kilbride, spending 48. On the 12th, he charged 46 for lunch in Glasgow's Bar Milano for a "catch up and board development issues" before, that same night, heading to Est Est Est for an "advisers dinner" costing 105.

The following evening, he booked a private room at exclusive Glasgow restaurant St Jude's for a dinner on "shipbuilding", with "Scottish Executive and SE Fife", at a cost of 443. Then finally, on the 23rd, he signed off a cheque for 594 at the Lord Provost's Burns Supper.