Two former Army soldiers have launched what they believe is Scotland's first secure chauffeur service aimed at chief executives, celebrities and high net worth individuals.

STEPHEN BREEN

Two former Army soldiers have launched what they believe is Scotland's first secure chauffeur service aimed at chief executives, celebrities and high net worth individuals.

Chris MacLeod and Craig McIntosh, founders of Targe Chauffeurs, believe there is a gap in the market for wealthy individuals visiting Scotland on business or on holiday who need drivers trained to military standards.

Among their first clients, whom they declined to name, were pop stars escorted from Glasgow and Edinburgh to the T in the Park music festival in Balado, Perth & Kinross.

MacLeod, 29, from East Kilbride, and McIntosh, 30, from Stirling, who met after joining the Royal Highland Fusiliers straight from school, are now targeting blue-chip companies north of the border, events promoters, concierge companies and luxury hotels.

They are in talks with an Indian millionaire from the east coast of Scotland who is planning to bring wealthy business people from the sub-continent to Scotland for golf tournaments.

They believe the car bomb attack at Glasgow Airport on June 30, and the heightened state of security since, highlights the need for business figures and the rich to think beyond simply hiring a taxi to get them to meetings or social and sporting events.

As well as serving tours of duty in an armoured infantry unit driving small tanks in combat zones such as Northern Ireland and Bosnia, MacLeod and McIntosh have carried out secure escort work for private companies and the Foreign Office in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The threat in the UK today is obviously not as big as anything we faced in Afghanistan or Iraq, but the threat here and in the US is increasing all the time," said MacLeod.

"People in blue-chip companies need the peace of mind to know that they will be picked up safely from an airport or other venue and transported onwards, and that if anything does happen, they don't have to rely on a taxi driver to protect them."

Prior to starting up the company, the pair undertook a five-week close protection course in Cape Town, South Africa, which involved advance driving, firearms training, bodyguard techniques and medical training, including weekend ambulance shifts in impoverished townships.

Targe - named after the Scottish shield used by Jacobites - have bought two Mercedes Viano people carriers, and the company also uses E-Class Mercedes saloon cars. MacLeod and McIntosh have built up a roster of former Army drivers trained to the same standards as themselves.

During his time in Iraq, MacLeod worked in security teams of eight transporting General Electric staff across the war-torn country to fix electrical lines.

"Half a dozen guys I knew were killed out there, but we were fortunate that any incidents that happened were either a street away or had happened five minutes before or after we arrived," he said.

McIntosh spent almost one year in Afghanistan working for the Foreign Office protecting the HM Revenue & Customs teams that were training Afghan anti-narcotics squads. This often involved clandestine night-time meetings with undercover agents in remote parts of the country, or transporting seized opium by aeroplane to Kabul to be destroyed.

According to MacLeod, the company can use the specialist intelligence gathering and risk assessment skills honed in war zones to make travel arrangements for business people and celebrities.

"We knew we had transferable skills such as close protection, advanced driving and situational awareness of potential threats that we could use in the UK," said MacLeod.

"We haven't seen anyone in Scotland that can match our skills and we know of two others in the UK who are trained to the same level as us," said McIntosh. "However, they will sub-contract out work to others who don't have our skills, whereas we will only employ drivers who meet our own standards."

Major celebrities such as David Beckham have their own security teams, but according to MacLeod, when they come to the UK they hire chauffeurs whose skills are limited to driving. However, Targe say that a celebrity's security team would be able to employ them and know that they had additional security training.

He claims Targe's rates - £30 per hour for a car and chauffeur - are no more expensive than other chauffeur companies, but that clients have the added benefit of having drivers who have close protection skills and medical training.