Man mistaken for Sir Chris Hoy cleared of hotel fraud

A man who was mistaken for Olympic hero Sir Chris Hoy by staff at a luxury five-star hotel has been cleared of fraudulently obtaining a room and board worth hundreds of pounds.

Gary Towsey was wearing full Highland dress that had previously been stolen from a local hire shop when he walked into the upmarket Bonham Hotel in Edinburgh in September 2023.

Towsey, 43, was then “misidentified” as the Scots cycling star by a hotel receptionist and was alleged to have gone on to obtain board and lodging worth around £600 without paying.

He was later arrested and charged by police with the hotel fraud and to resetting the kilt, jacket and shoes he was wearing at the time.

But when the case called for trial at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday (WED) prosecutors accepted a not guilty plea to the fraud charge and a guilty plea to an offence of reset.

Fiscal depute Peter Finnon told the court: “This matter came to the attention of the police after an incident at a hotel where Mr Towsey was misidentified as an individual by hotel staff.

“At that time he was wearing the kilt, the shoes and the jacket and he was spoken to by the police days later in relation to those items he said he had taken from a park bench in the Meadows.”

Mr Finnon told the court the Highland regalia had earlier been stolen from the Davison dress hire outlet in the city’s Bruntsfield area.

The fiscal added: “There is no suggestion Mr Towsey stole the items but he had found them on the park bench.”

The court heard there had been full recovery of the kilt, jacket and shoes that were worth £610.

Defence agent Catriona Logan said her client was a father of six and had made “a foolish drunken mistake” after finding the bag with the kilt, jacket and shoes on the bench.

Ms Logan said: “He waited around for a while to see if anyone came back, but when they didn’t he’d had a considerable amount to drink and made the foolish mistake to put that on.

“There was full recovery of that and at the time Mr Towsey was suffering with a battle with alcoholism.”

The lawyer added Towsey, of Liverpool, had been abstaining from alcohol for the past six months and is now employed as a kitchen porter with a sports events company.

Sheriff Frank Gill said: “Having heard the circumstances of this offence and everything said on your behalf I am prepared to deal with matters by way of a financial penalty.”

Towsey was ordered to pay a total fine of £280 to mark the offence.

Towsey pled guilty to resetting a kilt, jacket and shoes that had previously been stolen on September 17, 2023.

He also had a not guilty plea accepted by the Crown to obtaining board and lodging to the value of £600 without paying and intending not to pay at the Bonham Hotel, Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, on the same date.