Shamed Edinburgh restaurant owner Alexander Galpin was today sentenced after pleading guilty to carrying out a shocking campaign of domestic abuse against a former partner.
Galpin, who owns the Luxford Burgers chain and claims to run a £6 million a year revenue group, abused the woman over an 18 month period – including attempting to coerce her into having an abortion and attempting to prevent her from contacting others.
He had earlier admitted a charge under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018. The court heard how a six month relationship turned sour when his then partner fell pregnant and he pressured her to have an abortion, leading to a number of confrontations.
He returned to the dock for sentencing today where his lawyer, Matthew Nicholson, confirmed to the court his client had lost a legal scholarship due to the offending and is currently £30,000 in debt.
Sheriff John Cook said: “This is a serious matter having regard to the length of time that you perpetrated over the period in the libel. But having said that, you have no previous convictions and the report assesses you for an alternative to a custodial sentence.”
Galpin was sentenced to a supervision order for two years and must attend sessions with the domestic abuse rehabilitation organisation, the Caledonian Men’s Programme.
Sheriff Cook also imposed a non-harassment order banning Galpin from approaching or contacting the victim for two years.
Between 1 March 2023 and 31 October 2024 at an address in Hatton Lane, Warriston, Edinburgh, and elsewhere, Galpin had engaged in a course of aggressive behaviour which was abusive to his ex-partner, which included repeatedly phoning and messaging the woman at all hours of the day.
He also demanded she not see her family and not to leave their flat when they lived together.
After one row at the Warriston home they shared, the woman followed Galpin to his car and sat in the passenger seat. He drove off with the passenger door open before the vehicle struck a post and the door closed. He then tried to pull her from the vehicle, causing bruising to her arm.
On another occasion he admitted seizing the woman by the body, pulling her and causing her to fall on a bed, and that he repeatedly called her and made offensive remarks.
Fiscal Peter Finnon earlier told the court that one offensive message stood out in the campaign of abuse. The woman, who suffered mental health issues, was on the phone to her doctor seeking help, when Galpin messaged: “Ask if you can get medication for malicious parent syndrome”.
The Edinburgh Reporter has seen a text sent by Galpin to the woman which said: “You’ve had no right to hold this over me every day and watch me squirm, you had no right to force me to look at pictures of a kid that I view as a cancer, nothing more nothing less”.
Galpin, 24, had previously been championed as a business success story by the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, who presented him with its 2024 Rising Star Award.
The Chamber also shortlisted Galpin in its 2025 High Growth Business Award category, despite The Edinburgh Reporter revealing just weeks earlier that Luxford Burgers’ parent company had been placed into liquidation with debts of more than £120,000.
Secure Kitchens Ltd was put into receivership on 9 January, leaving behind a trail of debts due to small local businesses and an outstanding tax and VAT bill of £76,000 due to HMRC.
He then “phoenixed” the business and the restaurants at St Leonard’s Street and Brandon Terrace continued to operate under Got Buns Ltd which was set up in June 2024.
Galpin’s LinkedIn profile (now removed) boasted that he ran a “hospitality management business that owns and operates a portfolio of restaurants across the UK, with a combined gross turnover of £6m+ per annum”, but according to various Companies House records this appears to be more fantasy than fact.
Galpin claimed he had secured a coveted traineeship with global legal firm Clifford Chance but the Magic Circle law firm withdrew the offer after he admitted the domestic abuse charge at Edinburgh Sherrif Court.
A spokesperson for Clifford Chance earlier told The Edinburgh Reporter: “As a policy we do not comment on individual applicants to the firm, but I can confirm this individual will not be a future trainee or join Clifford Chance.”
