A suspended Stonehaven church minister consumed cocaine before being caught drug-driving in the city centre of Aberdeen, The Press and Journal can reveal.
Reverend Mark Lowey, a self-proclaimed “transformed” ex-addict, was caught over the limit on George Street on September 28 last year.
The father-of-three was nearly four times the legal limit for Benzoylecgonine, a by-product of cocaine.
It can be detected in the bloodstream for up to 48 hours after the liver breaks down the Class A drug into the chemical compound.
Minister drug-drove while on bail following church manse drugs raid
At the time of the offence, Lowey, 53, was on bail after being charged in connection with a drugs raid on his then-home, the Fetteresso Church manse.
Police officers stormed the Church of Scotland-owned building on July 16 and discovered £1,500 of cocaine.
However, those charges against Lowey have since been dropped, the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has confirmed.
Proceedings remain active for another man, who was also arrested in the South Lodge Drive property.
Officers forced their way through the front door with a battering ram around 8am on the day of the raid.
It’s understood that Lowey, who was inside the house at the time, was no longer living with his family because they had moved out prior to the commotion.
The Church of Scotland suspended him from preaching on July 18, the day after he appeared from custody at Aberdeen Sheriff Court, where he was bailed.
Separately, Lowey was accused of committing three road traffic offences related to the drug-driving incident, but was only convicted of two.
The prosecutor accepted Lowey’s not guilty plea to a charge alleging he was caught driving without a valid MOT certificate.
However, he was convicted of the drug-driving charge, which stated he exceeded the 50mcg legal limit by recording a reading of 194mcg for Benzoylecgonine per litre of blood.
Driving disqualification and fine for disgraced church minister
Lowey, whose address was given as a council-run homeless unit on West North Street in Aberdeen, was also found guilty of driving a grey Volkswagen in such a bad state that it posed “a danger of injury to any person”.
Court papers said his front bumper was damaged on the offside area “with jagged edges exposed” both on the bumper and from the front offside wing.
Both front tyres and the rear offside tyre “were defective with cords being visible,” the charge sheet added.
On Tuesday, Lowey was sentenced for the September 2024 incident by Sheriff Mark Stewart at Aberdeen Sheriff Court.
He banned Lowey from driving for 12 months for the drug-driving offence, and fined him £320, reduced from £400 due to his guilty plea.
Lowey was admonished and dismissed on the second charge, meaning he avoided being punished for the offence with a warning not to do it again.
The Press and Journal can also now reveal that the drug-driving trial amounted to the controversial clergyman’s third criminal conviction that year.
‘I didn’t refuse’ alcohol breath test
On February 25 last year, while signed off work on long-term sick leave, he refused to allow police in Dundee to test his breath to confirm whether he had been drink-driving on Kinnoull Street, Perth.
He was also accused of driving the grey VW dangerously on the A85 and, without a reasonable excuse, failing to co-operate with a preliminary roadside breathalyser test for alcohol.
Before Perth Sheriff Court heard the case, Lowey contacted a reporter at The P&J and protested his innocence.
“I didn’t refuse,” he told our reporter, adding: “I asked the police to deal with a situation where a woman was screaming like a banshee for 20 minutes out of a flat window.
“She could have been getting tortured, raped, murdered, and they asked me to do a breathalyser test.”
‘I should be treated as everybody else’
He explained he told officers: “Yes, I can do a breathalyser test, but I think you should deal with that lady first, and they wouldn’t do it.”
Lowey went on: “And the next day, I discovered that the block of flats the lady was screaming out of was notorious for drug dealers and drug addicts.
“And I’ve discovered over the years that police don’t pay that much attention to drug addicts and drug dealers.”
He also told this newspaper that he had not expected special treatment from the police.
“I never told them I was a minister with the Church of Scotland because in the past I have garnered favour which I shouldn’t get,” Lowey said, adding: “I should be treated as everybody else.”
Church minister’s guilty plea
During a hearing at Perth Sheriff Court earlier this year, Lowey finally admitted to the charge that he “did without reasonable excuse” fail to provide two specimens of breath for analysis.
The offence happened at the Divisional Police Headquarters on West Bell Street in Dundee.
The run-in with the police earned Lowey a criminal conviction, however, his guilty plea was rewarded with a discounted sentence.
The court fined Lowey £270, down from £300, and disqualified him from holding and obtaining a driving licence for 22 months, down from 24 months.
He was acquitted of two charges when the COPFS accepted his not guilty pleas.
One of those charges had alleged that on the A85, Lowey did “dangerously drive too close to the vehicle in front, attempt to overtake vehicles when it was not safe to do so into the path of oncoming traffic”.
It stated a pick-up driver was forced to take “evasive action to avoid a collision” and added Lowey did “repeatedly veer over the centre line of the road, repeatedly mount the grass verge and drive erratically, speeding up and slowing down when it was not necessary to do so.”
The other charge that was dropped stated that Lowey “did without reasonable excuse fail to co-operate with a preliminary test” at the roadside when “reasonably suspected” of driving “while having alcohol or a drug” in his body or “being under the influence of a drug.”
Minister’s former life of addiction
Lowey is no longer authorised to perform as a church minister as his registration status is inactive.
A Church of Scotland spokeswoman said: “We note the outcome of recent court cases in relation to Rev Mark Lowey, formerly the minister at Fetteresso Church in Stonehaven.
“He has been off long-term sick and is now suspended from the functions of ministry pending disciplinary proceedings.
“As such we are not in a position to comment further at this time.”
Lowey, who grew up in Ardrossan, Ayrshire, relocated from the central belt to the north-east with his family.
He was inducted to the charge of Stonehaven Fetteresso Church on January 14 2021, having previously served East Kilbride South Parish Church.
In July 2012, he spoke to the Daily Record newspaper about taking on the position more than 20 years after being jailed for conspiracy to rob a shop.
Lowey was locked up in Scotland’s largest prison, HMP Barlinnie, in his 20s where he became hooked on heroin for four years.
‘God came into my life and totally transformed it’
He told the newspaper his life had finally hit “rock bottom” after using cannabis and ecstasy throughout the years as a petty teenage criminal, who also spent time in young offenders institutions, following repeated exclusions from school.
However, speaking about his release from prison, he added: “God came into my life and totally transformed it”.
In February 2018, Lowey was appointed director of a registered charity called Teen Challenge Strathclyde, “challenging addiction and offering hope to the vulnerable and socially marginalised” through outreach work.
The charity’s website explained: “The organisation is based on Christian values and beliefs, providing a positive answer to the current addiction problem.”
Lowey resigned from his position at the central belt organisation on July 18 2023.
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