POLICE have reported the director of the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ General Election campaign to the Crown Office over alleged criminality around last year’s Holyrood poll.
Alex Cole-Hamilton, 39, is the subject of a formal report to the procurator fiscal in relation to his campaign spending last year, when he took the Edinburgh Western seat from the SNP.
The SNP called for Mr Cole- Hamilton to be suspended from his role as campaign director and from his party.
Officers have spent months investigating alleged financial irregularities in the former charity worker’s campaign, after a complaint he may have breached the legal spending cap and filed an inaccurate, and therefore illegal, election return last June.
The police sent a standard prosecution report to the fiscal on Monday, something which only occurs when they consider there is evidence of wrongdoing.
A Crown Office spokesman said: “The procurator fiscal has received a report concerning a 39-year-old male in connection with an alleged incident on June 7, 2016. The report is under consideration.”
Mr Cole-Hamilton won Edinburgh Western by 2,960 votes after spending £32,549 on his campaign, just below the legal limit, compared with £18,593 by his SNP rival Toni Giugliano.
In Edinburgh’s five other seats, the average spend by LibDem candidates was £924.
Mr Cole-Hamilton stood as a “dual candidate”, standingboth in a seat and on the regional list.
He stayed under the constituency spending cap by attributing thousands of pounds of leaflet and office costs to the regional fight rather than the constituency one.
However mMany leaflets claimed by the LibDems as regional spending for the Lothians were heavily skewed towards specific districts in Edinburgh Western. He was last week backed by party leader Willie Rennie.
He also claimed he spent more on tea and biscuits than renting a shared office.
Scottish LibDem leader Willie Rennie last week said he had “absolute confidence” in Mr Cole-Hamilton, despite the inquiry, adding: “It’s going to be fine.”
A Scottish LibDem spokesman said: “We have full confidence that there is nothing in this complaint. Everything was done by the book and any proceedings will show this.”
An SNP spokesman said: “Willie Rennie must immediately remove Alex Cole-Hamilton as the party’s General Election director.”
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