POLICE FOUND a cache of illegal “dum-dum” bullets when they searched a Perthshire hotel, a court heard yesterday.

Officers made the discovery as they swept the Newmiln Hotel at Guildtown following reports its manager, James McFarlane, had tried to run over a love rival in his car.

Concerned about the fact McFarlane (51) held a shotgun licence, police visited his home when they heard about the incident on September 12.

There, in a locked cabinet, they found 561 CCL .22 bullets, designed to expand on impact, as well as 75 Remington .243 bullets and 84 Mantel .764 rounds for firing from a rifle.

Permission from the Scottish Secretary or Scottish ministers is required to hold such ammunition.

Depute fiscal Vicki Bell told the court McFarlane was at his ex-girlfriend’s flat in Perth on the evening in question.

She went outside to meet another man.

McFarlane discovered the couple in the man’s car and, with the woman still in it, he drove straight at it in his Land Rover, then sped off.

The police were contacted and they made their way to the hotel, where McFarlane still lived with his ex-wife and three children.

The search uncovered two locked cabinets within another locked cabinet.

One containing a pair of legally-owned shotguns and the illegal ammunition was in the other.

McFarlane pleaded guilty to possessing the ammunition without proper authority.

Solicitor Jamie Morris said his client is a farmer who ran the hotel for its owner, Qatari prince Abdul Aziz al-Thani.

He said McFarlane was “surprised” to see the ammunition, which he said the prince had bought on his last visit to Scotland in 2002 for a shooting party.

It had lain untouched since.

He described McFarlane’s crime as one “more of omission than commission” because he should have realised the bullets were there and disposed of them properly.

He said, “He didn’t use the second cabinet that was set aside for the landowner’s use when visiting.

“No one is able to understand why, on the completion of his visit in 2002, when he lodged his rifles, he did not also lodge the ammunition.

“It seems like a rather bizarre thing for him to have done.

“As the owner of the shotgun licence, Mr McFarlane should have made the discovery the ammunition was there and made arrangements to have it moved and stored.”

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis fined him £400 and forfeited the ammunition.

McFarlane also pleaded guilty to maliciously damaging a car and driving at it.

Mr Morris said his client had thought he and his former girlfriend had restarted their relationship and the “red mist descended” when he saw her with the other man.

He said McFarlane drove just 10 feet to strike the other car and damaged it very slightly. The woman was unhurt.

McFarlane was fined £800 and banned from driving for nine months.

Sheriff Foulis said, “Anyone who gets behind the wheel and acts the way you did on the night in question has forfeited the right for a period of time to be licensed to drive.”