Tam Paton and the missing £300,000

Paton was speaking just hours after being fined 200,000 at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday for drug dealing.

The 65-year-old former pop mogul revealed he had been given six months to pay the record fine.

He said: "They punished me where it hurt the most - in my pocket - but I’m relieved I didn’t go to jail."

Paton said the police had 300,000 of his money which they seized during the raid, and he would be starting legal proceedings to get the money back.

Paton, who was made an honorary captain of New York Police Department for his charity work, was caught with cannabis resin with an estimated street value of almost 26,000 at his Edinburgh home, Little Kellerstain, at Gogar.

However, the High Court accepted that he was not trafficking for profit.

And today he claimed he bought the cannabis to share with his partner of 27 years and 12 people who live in his home.

He said: "I recognise I was stupid to have contributed to a consortium to purchase cannabis, but my motives were for the best.

"I have tenants in Little Kellerstain from the ages of 22 to 42, and I believed that it was better to contribute to the bulk purchase of cannabis than have them go to dealers who may well have tempted them into stronger drugs if cannabis was not available."

The pop promoter turned property tycoon - worth an estimated 5.2 million and with earnings of 20,000 a month - admitted charges of being concerned in the supply of cannabis resin and herbal cannabis between January and March last year.

Not guilty pleas to charges of trafficking in Ecstasy and cocaine, and his denial that drugs had been supplied to a prisoner in the city’s Saughton jail, were accepted.

Paton, who has a history of heart problems, finally made it to the dock after a health scare last week led to him being taken from the court building by ambulance before the case could be called. But he claimed he did not want to go to hospital.

"I told them it was an anxiety attack and didn’t want to go to hospital. I just wanted to get the case over and done with," he said.

Judge Roderick Macdonald QC told Paton that his guilty pleas - along with his age and the state of his health - had saved him from jail.

The judge said: "The Crown have not disputed that you purchased the drugs for yourself and those living in your house and you were not to profit from this exercise."

But he added: "It is all the more shameful that someone of your age and state of health should become involved in this criminal activity."

Telling Paton he had decided on a fine, Judge Macdonald said: "In view of your substantial wealth, it must be a very considerable fine which will cause pain to you and punish you, and deter you from ever again being involved in the supply of controlled drugs."

Earlier the court heard how Paton was caught red handed - holding a kilo of cannabis resin - when drug squad police raided his ranch-style mansion on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

It was the second raid in less than three months at Paton’s home.

Paton later told officers that someone else living in the house had thrust the bars of cannabis into his hands as officers rushed in to search the premises.

Advocate depute John Hamilton, prosecuting, said that in two separate raids - on January 15 and March 27 last year - cannabis resin with a total possible street value of 25,920 had been seized. On both dates police had been tipped off.

Paton’s lawyer, Mhairi Richards QC, said people who rented rooms there had been offered six kilos of cannabis resin for the bargain price of 4800.

Paton had helped finance the deal by putting up half the cash and the drugs were to be shared by the residents of Little Kellerstain. Ms Richards said that over the years, Paton - jailed for indecency with young boys more than 20 years ago - had achieved "a certain notoriety".

But, she said, Paton was someone who had left "a seven-figure sum" to charity in his will and had made substantial donations for years - even helping pensioners who had been mugged or conned out of their money by bogus workmen.

Paton was the mastermind behind 70s pop group the Bay City Rollers, who achieved international success in their distinctive tartan-trimmed costumes.

Then, in May 1982, Paton’s world came crashing down when he was jailed for three years for indecency with teenage boys.

A trial was halted after four days of evidence when Paton pleaded guilty to reduced charges, admitting that he had molested ten boys over a period of three years.

He still faces court proceedings when the Crown will ask for any assets they consider to have been linked to drugs to be confiscated.