Scottish Government must change the law to stop Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments being issued to violent or sexual offenders in jail, MSP members have said.
Their warning comes after Douglas Brown, of Palgowan Farm near Wigtownshire, received approximately 85,698 in BPS despite being imprisoned for five years for a series of sexual abuse offences involving children.
Farmers Guardian understands Mr Brown received approximately 49,000 in BPS and greening subsidies just weeks after his jailing, which was followed by a further 33,981 in less favoured area payments in January and 1,946 from a beef support scheme in April.
Speaking to the Daily Record Green MSP Mark Ruskell said: "It is clear this man is not a fit and proper person to receive public money.
"Immediate action should be taken to prevent him, and others like him, from receiving this cash."
Scottish Tory MSP Jamie Greene added it must be harrowing for the man’s victims to see that the subsidy he received has almost doubled.
"The SNP Government needs to pull out all the stops to close this loophole and prevent a case like this ever happening again."
A Scottish Government spokesperson told Farmers Guardian it was considering whether to make a change to the law to withhold payments to those who are not ’fit and proper persons’.
They added there was no provision within the current legislation governing BPS to recover or withhold payments to an individual business if they are meeting the scheme requirements.
