IT IS often said there is no such thing as a free lunch, but one Glasgow cafe owner is trying to prove that mantra wrong by bringing the US craze for "suspended" coffees to Scotland.

Paul McGill, who runs the New York Jacks deli in Mount Florida, Glasgow, said he wanted to help needy people in his community by allowing customers to buy extra food and drink, which he would then give away for free to those who are hard-up or homeless.

Mr McGill, 50, said: "There are a lot of people actually too proud to ask for help – they'd rather go through bins and cut down on their heating instead.

"There are kids going by here with their mothers every day and you know they're in need.

"This way they can come in and sit down and no one knows whether they've paid for the food they're eating or not."

The system was first developed in Naples, Italy. It allowed people to buy a coffee for themselves and one "on suspension" – meaning they pay for it but do not actually take it away.

The extra credits are logged by the shopkeeper and scored off whenever they are used up by someone coming in asking for a "suspended coffee".

The trend has now been taken up in the US and has started to appear in a few places south of the Border, but Mr McGill believes he is the first person to try it out in Scotland.