David Lyons fails in legal bid over alleged crime links

A garage owner has lost a legal bid to sue police for £200,000 damages over his alleged links to organised crime.

David Lyons, 53, raised the defamation action against Strathclyde Police after he lost his MOT testing licence.

He said it was revoked by the vehicle inspection agency, VOSA, following police claims that he had links to serious crime and drug trafficking.

Mr Lyons' action was rejected at the Court of Session last year. His appeal has now been rejected by three judges.

Mr Lyons' garage - formerly called Lambhill Autos, in Balmore Road - was the scene of a triple shooting in December 2006.

His nephew, Michael Lyons, 21, died in that attack and two other men were seriously injured.

The garage, which now trades as Apple Row Motors, was also targeted in a deliberate fire in September 2010.

Several members of Mr Lyons' family have been involved in crime-related incidents.

His brother John was shot in a gang attack, his older brother Edward has been convicted of mortgage fraud and his son Paul was jailed for 12 years for a road rage killing.

Mr Lyons claims, however, that he is not involved in any criminality.

His legal action relates to letters sent to two regulatory bodies, a council licensing committee and the Vehicle and Operators Services Agency (VOSA), by the former Strathclyde Police in 2007 and 2010.

In the letters, the force said that it held intelligence which indicated that Mr Lyons was involved in serious crime, including drug trafficking.

In March 2010 he lost his authorisation to carry out MOT tests.

Mr Lyons subsequently raised an action at the Court of Session in Edinburgh against Stephen House, the former chief constable of Strathclyde Police, who is now the chief constable of Police Scotland.

In the civil action Mr Lyons sued for damages for defamation and breach of data protection legislation.

He also sought a declaration that "any assertion to the effect that the pursuer (Mr Lyons) is involved in serious and organised crime, including the trafficking and supply of Class A drugs, is false."

Mr Lyons said he had not been charged with a crime and as far as he was aware was not under investigation.

The case was dismissed by Lady Smith last year after she ruled that a relevant case had not been made out.

The judge said: "He is concerned to establish that he is not and has not been a drug dealer or, as he puts it, 'a career criminal'."

She said that was "a shaky foundation" for his case because the chief constable had not alleged or stated that he was or had been.

Lady Smith said that all that had been communicated was that a database contained "intelligence" that he was involved in crime and had criminal associations.

She said: "At no point in either letter did the defender endorse the beliefs of those who had provided that intelligence."

The judge said she was satisfied that the occasions on which the letters were sent were privileged ones.

They were sent, she said, to help or enable the bodies to perform their public functions.

Mr Lyons, of Cumbernauld, North Lanarkshire, raised an appeal against her decision, but that has now been refused by Lord Eassie, sitting with Lord Menzies and Lord Brodie.

Lord Brodie said Lady Smith was satisfied on Mr Lyons' pleadings that the two occasion when letters were communicated were privileged ones as they came within the scope of police duties and related to matters of public concern to the regulatory bodies.

He said: "In our opinion she was correct in the conclusion to which she came.

"It follows that the pursuer puts forward no basis upon which he can establish the element of malice which is necessary for a relevant case of defamation."

The appeal judges also rejected the case put forward under data protection legislation.