Stagecoach co-founder Dame Ann Gloag charged with human trafficking offences
By James Cook
Scotland editor
Scottish transport tycoon Dame Ann Gloag has been charged with human trafficking offences.
Her husband David McCleary and two other members of their family have also been charged.
BBC Scotland has been told that the 80-year-old co-founder of Stagecoach was charged after voluntarily attending Livingston police station in West Lothian for an interview.
All four strongly deny the charges against them.
A statement issued on behalf of Dame Ann said that she could not comment on the details of an ongoing investigation.
But it added: "Dame Ann Gloag strongly disputes the malicious allegations that have been made against her, her foundation and members of her family."
It went to say she would "vigorously defend herself and the work of her foundation to protect her legacy and continue her work helping thousands of people in the UK and abroad every year."
Police Scotland confirmed that four people were charged in connection with an investigation into alleged human trafficking and immigration offences.
A spokesperson said a report would be sent to the Scottish prosecution service, the procurator fiscal.
Dame Ann retired from Stagecoach in 2019, almost 40 years after she founded the firm with her brother. At the time she was Scotland's richest woman.
The Perth-based firm grew out of Margaret Thatcher's deregulation of the bus industry in the 1980s.
It grew to become one of the UK's biggest bus and coach operators, employing more than 24,000 people.
Dame Ann is now a philanthropist with business and charity interests around the world.
She set up the Gloag Foundation to support projects that "prevent or relieve poverty and encourage the advancement of education, health and religion in the UK and overseas".
The foundation supports charities including Freedom from Fistula, a women's health charity founded by Dame Ann, which supports women and children in Sierra Leone, Malawi and Madagascar.
www.bbc.co.uk
