A GANGLAND thug once cleared of a notorious hit on a rival has finally been caged - for driving while banned. Mark Clinton, 35 - a henchman of hoodlum Paul Ferris - was sentenced to seven months for getting behind the wheel of his Ford Probe.

Last year Clinton walked free over the Glasgow slaying of gangster Billy McPhee after the case collapsed when witnesses failed to identify him in court McPhee, 38, a sidekick of millionaire crime boss Tam "The Licensee" McGraw, was savagely knifed to death while watching a rugby match in a pub in a brutal gangland assassination.

Clinton and Ferris, 41, are friends and appeared on TV presenter Donal McIntyre's Channel 5 show last year when Clinton needed subtitles to be understood. Jubilant Clinton was filmed outside court celebrating when his murder trial collapsed after just one day.

Interviewed by McIntyre, he never denied killing McPhee and bragged that he was one of only three men in Glasgow capable of inflicting such violence. He confessed to other horrific knife attacks.