Charles McAughey and Scott Bannatyne

Introduction

Charles McAughey, 65, and Scott Bannatyne, 29, are Scottish men who each pleaded guilty at Glasgow High Court on 4 August 2026 to separate charges arising from cocaine consignments moved for serious organised crime — McAughey to participating in the activities of an organised crime group, and Bannatyne to a drug-supply offence aggravated by a connection with serious organised crime, both while subject to a bail order. Between them the case covered a four-kilogram cocaine transfer in March 2025 and the concealment of one hundred kilograms of cocaine — an assessed maximum street value of approximately £8,000,000 — hidden in a lorry trailer in December 2025. Sentencing on 15 September 2026, Lord Arthurson said it was “plain and indeed in the public interest that only significant custodial disposals” could be imposed, jailing McAughey for six years and Bannatyne for three .

Background Information

The agreed factual narrative, read into the court record at the pleas, describes two episodes. On 12 March 2025 both men were involved in the transfer of controlled drugs between one vehicle and another; the four kilograms of cocaine police subsequently recovered from that episode were assessed as having a maximum potential street value of around £320,000. The second episode, on 11 December 2025, involved McAughey alone: knowing a lorry was transporting a substantial quantity of controlled drugs, he arranged to meet the vehicle at an industrial estate to assist in the further concealment of drugs contained in a hide within the lorry trailer. Police recovered one hundred kilograms of cocaine, with a purity range of 61 to 81 percent and an assessed maximum potential street value of approximately £8 million .

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Admitted roles in moving and concealing cocaine consignments worth up to £8 million for organised crime; jailed for six years and three years.

McAughey’s record made him the more serious case: eight groups of previous convictions, of which one directly analogous conviction — a 2017 drug trafficking conviction from the Criminal Court of Marseille — involved driving a lorry carrying 684 kilograms of cocaine intended for delivery to Glasgow. Lord Arthurson described McAughey as having “pled guilty to involvement in the importation of a vast amount of class A controlled drugs, albeit on the face of matters at a low level, and all in the context of serious organised crime.” Notwithstanding the mitigation advanced — his age, health issues, his role across two separate incidents, and his limited role as a facilitator — the judge selected a notional headline custodial tariff of eight years, reduced to six years for the timing and utility of the early plea, backdated to 15 December 2025 when McAughey was first remanded. The Crown’s motion for a Serious Crime Prevention Order was granted in agreed terms for three years .

Bannatyne’s record was negligible — two non-analogous summary-level convictions — and his involvement in the trafficking charged related to a far lesser amount of cocaine, though the judge noted its value “was still a considerable one.” His notional headline tariff of four years, six months of which was attributed to the bail aggravation, was reduced to three years for the early plea, backdated to 4 August 2026 when he pleaded and was remanded. Both men had committed their offences while the subject of a bail order — an aggravation the court expressly recognised in Bannatyne’s sentence .

Public Reaction and Consequences

The sentencing statement records mitigation for each man — personal, family and prior employment circumstances, the acceptance of criminal responsibility through early pleas, character references for Bannatyne, and the limited facilitator roles both played — and Lord Arthurson’s conclusion that these could not displace custody. For McAughey, the three-year Serious Crime Prevention Order will restrict his activities after release, on terms agreed between the Crown and his senior counsel. The £8 million figure attached to the December lorry seizure ranks the case among the larger single cocaine recoveries reported in Scottish courts that year .

Current Status

McAughey is serving six years, backdated to 15 December 2025, and will be subject to the three-year Serious Crime Prevention Order after release. Bannatyne is serving three years, backdated to 4 August 2026. Both sentences were imposed on 15 September 2026 at Glasgow High Court. The published statement does not record any appeal, and the organised-crime group said to sit behind the consignments is not named in the sentencing remarks .

Impact on Their Career/Life

McAughey’s Marseille conviction — 684 kilograms of cocaine on a lorry bound for Glasgow — followed nine years later by a guilty plea to concealing one hundred more in a lorry trailer establishes a decades-long pattern the court treated as directly analogous history, and the Serious Crime Prevention Order extends the state’s control over his conduct beyond his release. Bannatyne, at twenty-nine, moves from a negligible record to a three-year sentence for organised-crime-connected trafficking committed while on bail — a trajectory the judge’s remarks make plain ended only because of the police seizure of the trailer hide .

Sources

• “HMA v Charles McAughey and Scott Bannatyne” — Judiciary of Scotland sentencing statement, 15 September 2026: source