A man has been arrested and charged with alleged drug offences after a cannabis farm was discovered in the former Spean Bridge Hotel.
The hotel, on the A82 near Fort William, has been decried as a 'carbuncle' by locals after years of under-investment and changes in management.
Thought to be owned by a Chinese travel firm, its holding company is controlled by a Mr Ming Liang Chen according to Companies House.
The company, which changed its name from Spean Bridge Hotel Ltd, faced being struck off earlier this year but that action was discontinued on April 20.
Read More:
-
Spean Bridge Hotel 'driving tourism away' from Highland village
-
Hotelier would restore Highland 'carbuncle' if 'price was right'
In the latest set of accounts, up to January 31 2023, the company had net liabilities of £337,350 of which £266,000 fell due within the next year.
The hotel is currently closed, with no indication of when it will re-open.
After a police presence was spotted outside of the building, it was discovered that it was being used to grow cannabis.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “A 34-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with drug offences after a cannabis cultivation was discovered within a property on Station Road, Spean Bridge around 11.20am on Saturday, 17 August.
“He is due to appear at Inverness Sheriff Court on Monday, 19 August, 2024.”
It comes after 1,000 cannabis plants were discovered at the Royal Hotel on Allan Street in Blairgowrie earlier this month.
Police confirmed a 27-year-old man had been arrested and charged in connection with drug offences, with cultivations also found at two locations in Dundee.
The Royal Hotel closed in 2020, and Mr Chen is also listed as the sole director of its holding company, Milton Blairgowrie Hotel Ltd.
That company also faced a compulsory strike-off earlier this year which has been discontinued.
Mr Chen is currently the director of 12 companies, and was formerly the sole director of Watermill Hotel Ltd, owner of the Watermill Hotel in Paisley, but that company was struck off in August 2023.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here