Daily Diary

Wiped out

Posted 7/11/2007 by The Daily Diary

From relationship management to anger management, it’s easy to see how the stress can occasionally get the better of a put-upon City slicker. Indeed, evidence came last week that even lawyers in sleepy provincial backwaters like post-industrial Scotland can lose their rag from time to time (especially after a few recreational ales).

Paul Hutcheson, a partner at Scots firm Aberdein Considine & Co, last month had to cough up £1,000 in fines after a bizarre rampage that saw him ripping off the windscreen-wipers from 11 cars parked in the Perthshire golf club where his mother’s 80th birthday was being celebrated earlier this year.

Upon being caught red-handed by the owner of one of the vehicles, Hutcheson promptly whipped out his bank card and instructed his victim to take the cost of the damage.

Luckily, Hutcheson – whose outburst was referred to in court as a “moment of madness”, much like when politicians are found stuffing squirrels down their pants in public parks – has the support of his firm and continues to practise at the property boutique, having presumably managed to, ahem, wipe the slate clean.