US rapper punched tour bus driver at Gretna service station Published duration 17 January 2019

image caption Jordan Carter appeared at the Justice of the Peace Court in Dumfries.

An American rapper has been convicted of attacking the driver of his tour bus at a Scottish motorway service station.

Jordan Carter - known as Playboi Carti - had denied the assault but admitted causing damage to the luxury coach at Gretna last February.

The 22-year-old, of Georgia, USA, was fined £800 following a trial at Dumfries Justice of the Peace Court.

The incident happened following a row about the standard of a replacement bus to be used on his European tour.

The court heard that a luxury coach with beds and other equipment was hired for about £30,000 for his three-week tour, which included dates in Glasgow and London.

The double-decker vehicle transported Carter and 14 people who were part of his entourage.

However it had developed problems with the heating over the previous eight days and on the journey from Glasgow to London the heating would not work again.

When it stopped at the Gretna Services at 02:00 on 25 February, the driver tried to repair the fault but he could not get the bus to start again.

'Stumbled back'

A relief coach was sent with two drivers but it did not have the same facilities as the original vehicle.

One of the drivers, Alistair MacLeish, 57, told the court he saw Carter punch the German driver of the original tour bus.

"I saw things being thrown around the tour bus and then a man ran across and punched the driver on the face, cutting him and knocking his glasses off," he said.

"It was the accused Carter who had been standing with a group but as two guys tried to restrain him he wriggled past them ran across and punched the driver who stumbled back.

"The driver did not do anything to him and did not retaliate."

The second driver, David Playfair, 67, added that they had refused to take the party to London after the trouble.

Two of Carter's tour managers told the court that Carter acted in self defence and that the German bus driver was "angry and agitated".

JP Alan Stannett said he accepted the evidence from the two relief bus drivers.

He fined him a total of £800 - £500 for assault and £300 for damaging the driver's window of the coach.