A PRIVATE hire driver in Glasgow avoided suspension of his license after police told the council he had been sent to jail.

Grant MacPherson was up before the licensing and regulatory committee following a police report which revealed he was sentenced to four months in prison by a court in England.

In March he was sent to prison and imposed with an £80 victim surcharge for having an affair with a former suspect while he was on duty as a detective for the Metropolitan police.

The police report from chief constable Philip Gormley approached the committee asking members to suspend his licence.

The chief constable said the driver was no longer “a fit and proper person” to hold a licence.

He said: “The chief constable asks the licensing committee to order the immediate suspension of Mr MacPherson’s driving licence on the grounds that the carrying on of the activity to which his licence relates is likely to cause a serious threat to public order or public safety.”

The letter also said that Police Scotland had motioned to suspend his licence at a committee meeting on March 9 this year before he was convicted at Snaresbrook Crown Court in London on April 28.

The letter added: “This conviction relates to Grant MacPherson between October 29 2015 and October 7 2016 while acting as a public officer, namely a police detective constable wilfully misconducted himself by becoming in an inappropriate and intimate relationship with a suspect to whom he assigned to act as an investigating officer.”

The committee said they were aware of the circumstances surrounding the original complaint made back in March when it was a pending case.

However, after hearing Macpherson at the committee and that he was imprisoned for five weeks for the offence, the committee determined not to suspend his licence and took no action of this complaint.

The committee then warned the driver for failing to comply with a condition of his licence - namely notifying the council he had been convicted.