A drug dealer who made to a neighbour is asking the Scottish Government for permission to run a dog breeding business.
Scott Bennett spent hundreds of thousands of pounds building a massive kennels complex on green belt land at Brae Farm near Strathaven – despite refusing to seek planning permission and not even owning the property.
South Lanarkshire councillors vetoed his plans after hearing that the illegal buildings would never have been given permission if he’d put in a proper application from the outset.
Bennett, who also has no licence to breed and sell pups, is now appealing to the Scottish Government’s planning reporter to allow him to keep the kennels.
A local source said: “This is one of the most ridiculous applications you could imagine.
“It’s a planning disaster with breaches all over the place and it would be a travesty if the Scottish Government allowed his appeal.
“What you have is a gangster who was shot in the face after moving in next door to ordinary people who were having normal, happy lives.
“Within a short space of time their lives were turned upside down. Cars were torched and police were forced to notify them that their new neighbour was on an underworld murder list.
“The building should be taken down.”
Earlier this week, Bennett was fined £1000 and slapped with a three-year non-harassment order at Hamilton Sheriff Court after he admitted threatening to kill a neighbour in a over the kennels.
The 39-year-old, who was jailed in 2016 for dealing cannabis, was brought into court in handcuffs after failing to turn up for an earlier hearing. He claimed he was forced to flee to Spain as a result of being issued an “Osman” threat to life warning by police.
Bennett has racked up massive legal fees to fight the planning ban, which local people hope will lead to the kennels being dismantled and him leaving the area.
He claims the council acted in an “unlawful” manner by turning down his retrospective bid.
A local councillor wrote to the planning reporter to say that the “entire community” was “fed up with the applicant’s poor behaviour”, adding: “The neighbours on either side of Brae Farm have been subjected to misery for years due to this unlawful building.”
Bennett and his wife run an animal fertility clinic in Strathaven that deals with controversial, high-value designer dogs.
In December 2018, he was blasted in the face in a targeted attack at a vet’s practice in Cambuslang, near Glasgow.
