Car cloning transport boss Gordon Maclennan oversaw £140,000 of taxpayer-funded contracts to a bus firm which he was later made a director of, the Sunday Mail can reveal.
He was forced to quit his £153,000-a-year job as CEO of Strathclyde Partnership for Transport (SPT) on Friday after this paper caught him driving an illegal cloned VW Passat.
But we can now reveal he stood down from a controversial non-executive directorship at minibus alteration company Allied Vehicles just hours after last week’s revelations.
He was appointed in March last year but information obtained by the Sunday Mail shows that over the past 10 years, the SPT spent £60,000 on MOT, maintenance and repairs contracts for buses, £19,000 adapting buses to meet EU standards and thousands more buying vans from the firm.
And it can also be revealed that while Maclennan was SPT chief executive, Glasgow-based Allied accepted free SPT office furniture when the transport body moved its HQ in 2016.
Shamed Maclennan also came under fire in 2016 after it emerged the SPT had sold buses bought from Allied Vehicles at a fraction of their cost.
The minibuses were purchased for between £82,000 and £84,000 but were then sold about six years later for as little as £450.
As well as his directorship at Allied Vehicles, Maclennan also co-owns and is a director of Millar Motors – an MOT and repairs garage in Kilsyth, Lanarkshire.
The SPT claims he didn’t receive remuneration for either role.
An ex-SPT employee said: “I sat directly outside his office. The door was always open and the main thing I ever heard him do while I worked there was arranging MOTs and services for cars at his garage.
“I thought he would be focusing fully on the SPT given his job, it just seemed very odd.”
Asked about Maclennan’s involvement with Allied Vehicles, its managing director Peter Facenna said: “Mr Maclennan became a non-executive director with Allied Vehicles Group Ltd in March 2020.
“At no stage has Mr Maclennan been employed by the company or held any operational responsibility. Mr Maclennan resigned from his position on Monday, August 16.
“Approximately six years ago, we received a call from SPT to ask if we could assist them in clearing furniture from a building they were vacating.
“The majority of the contents had already been removed by some charities and what remained was mostly unusable.
“Along with a number of other suppliers, we did supply SPT with some vehicles more than 10 years ago, however we were not involved in the subsequent sale of the vehicles by SPT, so cannot comment on this.”
Maclennan’s departure from the SPT was described as a retirement on Friday.
He’d initially been suspended after we caught him driving a VW Passat at his holiday house while an almost identical car with the same SF02 ORB reg was parked at his Glasgow office.
He was photographed with his serving police officer son Stuart leaving Dalmore on the Isle of Lewis and driving three miles to Carloway.
When called by our reporter he denied everything claiming “that’s not true”, before refusing to comment when informed of the photographic proof.
Car cloning is illegal and punishable with jail time, as is driving without insurance, MOT and road tax.
A police investigation is now under way.
A spokesman said: “We have received a complaint and will assess any information we are able to obtain.”
Valerie Davidson has stepped in as acting chief executive at the SPT.
A spokesman said: “Mr Gordon Maclennan, 72, has informed the SPT chair, Councillor Dr Martin Bartos, that he wishes to retire with immediate effect.
"This has been accepted and SPT thanks Mr Maclennan for his many years of service.”
The SPT insisted Maclennan didn’t request or receive a payoff but his pension is likely to be up to £100,000 a year.
MSP Monica Lennon has written to Police Scotland Chief Constable Iain Livingstone, saying: “As cloning a registration plate is illegal, I would be grateful if you could confirm what action Police Scotland is taking to investigate this serious matter, what progress has been made and whether any arrests or charges have been made.”
She said: “Mr Maclennan has now retired and been allowed to leave with glowing thanks despite the fact he is the subject of the criminal investigation.
"The police and the SPT need to get to the bottom of this if people are to have confidence that it isn’t one rule for highly paid public officials and another for everyone else.”
SNP councillor Angus Millar called for a full review of the body.
He said: “Not for the first time, SPT is mired in serious allegations.
"While it is correct that due process should take its course in any investigation into these allegations, this latest episode must surely prompt an urgent discussion on the purpose of SPT.
“SPT is well-served by talented people with leading expertise on transport issues. They aren’t served by the scandals which engulf the organisation and the structures it works within.
“The time is right to look at how we create the right structures to best serve the travelling public, modernise transport policy and governance and move on from the continual negativity which surrounds SPT.”
In 2015, it was reported that SPT directors, including Maclennan, had billed taxpayers for almost £50,000 in travel and other costs that never appeared on their published expenses.
