RBS fraud claims ruled a civil matter by Police Scotland

Police Scotland has closed its handling of fraud allegations made by an Edinburgh businessman against Royal Bank of Scotland, telling his MP that the dispute is civil rather than criminal and that it will take no further action unless ordered to by a court.

The position was set out last month by Inspector Quentin Russell, deputy local area commander for North West Edinburgh, in correspondence with Tracy Gilbert, the Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, who had raised the case of her constituent George Dosoo.

Mr Dosoo, a former hotel owner, alleges that money deducted from his business accounts by RBS was misappropriated. In a follow-up reply to Ms Gilbert, Inspector Russell said the matter “has been deemed a civil matter and is now closed in terms of any further investigation. This includes the money he alleges has been stolen.”

According to a Police Scotland Professional Standards Department letter to Mr Dosoo dated 27 March 2025, the case centres on his allegation that RBS failed to honour an agreement to provide a 13-month repayment holiday on a business loan to him and his then business partner.

The letter sets out a timeline based on Mr Dosoo’s statements. In June 2005 the partnership bought the County Hotel with RBS funding, after a valuer instructed by the bank put its value at £1.95m. The partnership went into provisional liquidation in August 2008, and the hotel was sold in July 2010 for £1.65m, a sale Mr Dosoo says went ahead without his consent.

Mr Dosoo alleges the sale was the result of a fraudulent scheme involving his former partner, bank officials and property consultants acting for the lender. The lender’s position, according to the letter, is that the disputed interest payments were authorised by a designated clause.

Inspector Russell said Mr Dosoo had reported the matter three times: once to local policing in Edinburgh and twice to the force’s national Economic Crime Unit. Two detectives visited him at home on 11 October 2016 and concluded the circumstances did not constitute criminality, the Professional Standards letter states.

Mr Dosoo complained about the police handling of his case on 4 October 2023. A sergeant reviewed the documents he supplied and consulted specialist financial investigators, and the crime registrar, who has final authority over whether a matter is recorded as a crime, agreed with the original assessment.

Detective Sergeant Fyall, a specialist economic crime investigator consulted during the review, wrote: “The actions of RBS to revalue the property (and then recall the loan) are entirely proportionate and within their right, especially given the financial climate at the time this happened.”

Inspector Russell told Ms Gilbert the review found insufficient evidence to support allegations of fraud or any other criminality, and no evidence of criminality in the conduct of Mr Dosoo’s former business partner that would justify police intervention.

The Professional Standards letter also said an accountancy opinion prepared on Mr Dosoo’s behalf and sent to his lender made no reference to any fraudulent activity.

Mr Dosoo then took his complaint to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC), which, according to Inspector Russell, did not uphold any of his allegations. The PIRC states that its complaint handling review decisions are final.

In an email to Ms Gilbert on 22 August, Mr Dosoo said the police summary had omitted a central point. “The crucial and important fact he did not say is the fact that funds deducted by RBS had gone missing/misappropriated and stolen,” he wrote.

He said detailed computations had been provided to Police Scotland by himself and a firm of independent experts, and that a judge at the Court of Session had agreed his claim had merit.

Inspector Russell said civil proceedings pursued through the Court of Session in Edinburgh had not produced any evidence of criminality, and that any further challenge would require a judicial review.

Police Scotland “will not be taking any further action in this matter unless instructed to by a court of law following any judicial review instigated by Mr Dosoo,” he wrote.

About the author

Jamie Young

Jamie Young is Senior Reporter at Business Matters, covering SME finance, employment law and Westminster policy since 2016. He has reported on every Budget and Autumn Statement since 2018, helped make sense of the ‘covid era’ and the bounce-back loan scheme from launch through the fraud investigations, and broke the magazine’s coverage of the 2024 late-payment reforms. He joined Business Matters straight from completing his BA in Administration from Exeter University and is NCTJ-qualified. Reach him at jyoung@cbmeg.co.uk

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