A convicted gangster caught with £500,000 worth of heroin has been refused entry to the landlord register in Scotland.

This will mean that Paul Macaulay, who was jailed in 2017 after pleading guilty to the supply of controlled drugs and dangerous driving, will be unable to let out property.

Macaulay, who has multiple convictions dating back some 20 years, applied for landlord registration for two properties in Edinburgh.

But local media in the city report that police told the council’s licensing sub-committee of Macaulay’s “clear links” to serious organised crime and “large-scale distribution of illegal drugs.” Police warned councillors that this was “not compatible with being a registered landlord”.

Macaulay did not attend the sub-committee as he was still in prison. 

The Scottish Daily Record report that Sergeant Grant Robertson from Police Scotland described Macaulay as “living beyond his means” and added: “Paul Macaulay would not be a fit and proper landlord.”

Councillors refused his landlord registration application.

Lord Armstrong said at the High Court in Edinburgh in 2017 if Macaulay had been found guilty after a trial he would have jailed him for 11 years but the judge reduced his total sentence to seven years and four months following his guilty pleas. Macaulay said at the time that he regretted his crimes “very much”.