EVIDENCE from Conservative MSPs helped to bring down Jack Abramoff, the American lobbyist on corruption charges.

David McLetchie, the former Scottish Tory leader, and Brian Monteith, were asked by the Crown Office to provide details of a dinner they attended with Abramoff in 2000.

It coincided with a golf trip at St Andrews organised by the lobbyist for Tom DeLay, the former Republican leader of the American House of Representatives and a close ally of George Bush.

Also at the dinner were native American Indian tribesmen with gambling interests. Two months after the trip DeLay voted against legislation that threatened to damage the casino interests of native American Indians, although he denies there was any connection.

Abramoff has since earned the nickname “Casino Jack” because of his multi-million-dollar lobbying efforts for native American gambling interests.

This week Abramoff admitted charges of conspiracy, fraud and tax evasion. In return for pleading guilty he agreed to provide prosecutors with evidence that could implicate at least 20 politicians, most of them Republicans.

The cash-for-favours racket that he ran is threatening to become the biggest political scandal in Washington since Watergate.

The £60,000 trip to St Andrews, which included DeLay’s wife and staff, was paid for by a Conservative group close to Abramoff.

While they were in the Fife town, Monteith, who recently resigned from the Scottish Conservatives after being caught briefing against McLetchie while he was leader, set up a dinner at an exclusive hotel.

Monteith knew Abramoff from his days as chairman of the Scottish Federation of Conservative Students when the lobbyist was chairman of College Republicans.

Monteith received a call from the American in the summer of 2000 to say he was playing golf with DeLay at St Andrews and that they would like to meet some senior Tories over dinner. Two of DeLay’s top aides, Susan Hirschmann and Tony Rudy, were also in town, along with their spouses and Edwin Buckham, another Washington lobbyist, and his wife.

According to US newspapers, the guest list included Terry Martin, a lobbyist of the Chitimacha tribe of Louisiana, Russian energy magnate Alex Koulakovsky, a friend of Abramoff who had dined in Moscow with DeLay and the lobbyist in 1997, and garment industry executive Willie Tan from the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, another friend of Abramoff and DeLay.

The MSP invited McLetchie and John Crawford, the then leader’s aide, and set up the dinner. Malcolm Scott, a Scottish Tory fundraiser also attended.

Over roast fillet of beef and pannacotta with raspberries, washed down with chablis, they talked about the new Scottish parliament, Tartan Day, the annual Scottish celebration in the United States, and George W Bush’s chances of becoming American president that year.

“There were a number of native American Indian tribesmen there who ran casinos. Obviously they were his (Abramoff’s) clients. Afterwards Jack said he thought it had been a successful trip,” said Monteith.

DeLay, who stayed at the Old Course hotel, enjoyed four rounds of golf at the course in the ancient town where politics, money and power are a part of the game. Hirschmann also reportedly played. Receipts obtained by US newspapers suggest the cost of the St Andrews trip was about £2,500 each.

During the same trip DeLay visited Baroness Thatcher in London. US justice offices asked British authorities to determine whether his meeting had involved substantive discussions on policy issues. Thatcher’s office has said it was simply a courtesy call.

Abramoff hit on the idea of taking powerful US politicians to the home of golf after befriending Republicans in the late 1990s.

In August 1999 he signed up for the national Republican senatorial committee’s “tartan invitational” when half a dozen Republican senators and their aides spent some days with about 50 lobbyists golfing at the St Andrews links. The following year he persuaded clients to fund his own trips there.

After details of Abramoff’s corruption emerged last year, Monteith contacted the police, offering to provide information to US investigators.

He and McLetchie were asked by the American authorities, through the Crown Office, to give evidence six weeks ago at Fettes, the Edinburgh headquarters of Lothian and Borders police. Both confirmed details of the dinner. Abramoff pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges earlier this month.

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