Murdered gangland figure's Edinburgh home set on fire because rivals believed it was about to be sold

It had been reported that close associates of Cameron feared his second home was being sold to clear a Proceeds of Crime debt order which would have seen profits handed over to the Crown Office.

A murdered gangland ­figure’s former house was set ablaze because rivals wrongly believed his family were about to cash-in on its sale, it has been claimed.

Convicted drug dealer Alex Cameron’s property in Newcraighall was destroyed two years after the farm where he was beaten to death and buried in a shallow grave was razed by an inferno.

It had been reported that close associates of Cameron feared his second home was being sold to clear a Proceeds of Crime debt order which would have seen profits handed over to the Crown Office.

Convicted drug dealer Alex Camerons property in Newcraighall was destroyed two years after the farm where he was beaten to death and buried in a shallow grave was razed by an inferno.

However, separate sources now claim it was set on fire by one of his enemies who wrongly believed Cameron’s relatives would benefit from the sale of the £170,000 house.

As the Police Scotland investigation into the blaze continues, an insider revealed: “One guy told someone he torched the place to stop any money from the sale going to the authorities and his wee tale just grew arms and legs. Lots of people fell for it. I think that even the police believe the story.

“But we’ve been told a totally different one, that points the finger in another direction.”

It had been reported that close associates of Cameron feared his second home was being sold

They added: “Alex owed money to the government but he also had debts elsewhere and there are people who did not want anyone getting their hands on the house. That includes some within his own close circle, even family. The story is that they burned the place to stop money going to family when it’s actually going one place and that’s into the Crown’s bank account.”

Cameron was slapped with a Proceeds of Crime order after his 2009 conviction and six-year prison sentence for drug dealing.

In 2015, brother-in-law Jimmy Smith, 62, bludgeoned Cameron to death at his farm in Kirknewton, later claiming he was acting in self-defence as he feared Cameron was going to kill him and his wife, Helen.

Smith tried to cover up the crime by burying Cameron’s body under a pile of horse manure at West Cairns Farm, but it later emerged during his trial that undercover detectives have been tailing the victim shortly before he was killed.

However, separate sources now claim it was set on fire by one of his enemies who wrongly believed Camerons relatives would benefit from the sale

Smith was found guilty of murder by a jury at the High Court in Livingston. They also convicted him of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by concealing the body and pretending to police he did not know where the missing man was.

He had admitted killing Cameron by repeatedly striking him on the head with a log-splitting axe and a six-kilo fencing hammer and burying the body in a shallow grave.

Smith said he feared he was going to be killed when Cameron ran at him swinging a bag at his head.

He said he fell over trying to avoid being struck, grabbed “two large hammers” and swung one of them around onto the back of Cameron’s head.

His typewritten confession read: “Pulling myself up I then went into a frenzied sort of numbness and was striking him several times on the head. All that I can remember thinking was: ‘I can’t let him shoot Helen.”

Cameron’s wrists and ankles had been bound together with electrical flex and blue polypropylene rope and his head and face were covered in blood.