A MAN who murdered his former boss, Dundee publican Danny Hallett, by

shooting him was jailed for life at the High Court in Edinburgh

yesterday.

As the verdict was announced that George Tolmie was guilty of murder,

a woman screamed from the public benches: ''He did not do it'' and broke

down.

Tolmie, 39, of Clepington Road, Dundee, had claimed Mr Hallett, 46,

was a victim of drugs barons because he owed them #10,000 and was

executed by a gunman who disappeared into the night.

Tolmie claimed he had pleaded with the gunman to spare his own life

and that the gunman left Tolmie with the dead body saying: ''He's your

problem now.''

The jury yesterday found Tolmie, formerly Hallett's commercial

manager, guilty of murder by majority verdict following a 10-day trial.

He was convicted of assaulting Mr Hallett, of Findhorn Street, Dundee,

firing a loaded shotgun at him and murdering him on ground known as

Scramble Hill, Pathcondie Farm, Letham, Fife, on November 3 last year.

He was also convicted of having a shotgun at the farm without holding

a shotgun certificate and burying body using a mechanical digger to dig

the grave at Scramble Hill on November 4 last year.

Tolmie had not given evidence at the trial, but the court heard how he

went to police told them that he had watched Mr Hallett being gunned

down by an unknown gunman.

He told them that he had covered the body with planks and stones the

night Mr Hallett was killed and then returned to Dundee to host a

karaoke night.

The next day he borrowed a mechanical digger returned to Scramble

Hill, which is used as a range by his shooting club, Tayforth Gun Club,

and buried Mr Hallett's body.

Tolmie claimed Mr Hallett had asked him to come with him to meet the

men to whom he owed #10,000 and stand as guarantor. Tolmie said at the

time he was remortgaging his house and agreed to lend Mr Hallett the

#10,000.

The court heard from Mr Hallett's estranged wife Dail Hallett, 40,

that she was not on speaking terms with him because she had left him for

one his barmen.

Mrs Hallett said that she did not believe her husband was involved in

drugs in any way. She told the court: ''He hated taking even

Paracetamol.''

She said that Tolmie had inquired about an insurance policy which he

thought Mr Hallett had held, but Mrs Hallett said there was no current

policy.

The court also heard that, at the time of his death, Mr Hallett's

Dundee pub business, Constable's Bar, Dundee, had failed and was in

receivership. He had debts totalling more than #100,000.

It was a row about the sale of a #2500 karaoke machine that led Tolmie

to act out his fantasy of committing the ''perfect' murder.

However, only days after killing and burying Mr Hallett, a former

boxer who weighed 20 stones, nerves got the better of the him and Tolmie

led police to the grave.

A gun fanatic, Tolmie shot at Bisley and when police went to his house

they discovered an arsenal of two rifles, three automatic pistols, and a

shotgun.

Tolmie made a living from running karaoke nights with a machine, which

he claimed to have bought from the receivers. But last year Hallett, of

Findhorn Street, Dundee, sold it for #2500 to another publican.

Furious at having been cheated, Tolmie put his plan for the

''perfect'' murder into operation.