A DOLLAR property developer who roamed the Ochil Hills in the buff has escaped punishment from a sheriff.

Paul Edney, 56, appeared before the courts this week charged with a number of public indecency charges.

He took to the hills wearing nothing but a baseball cap, boots and a rucksack and was snapped by one alarmed hillwalker.

Police investigated a number of complaints about a naked rambler on the hills and Edney was arrested.

He appeared at Stirling Sheriff Court on Monday, and pleaded guilty to three offences before Sheriff David Mackie.

Prosecutors said that all the incidents took place near the summit of 1371-foot Dumyat Hill, during the summer months in 2015 and 2016.

Fiscal depute Graham McLachlan said that in June 2015 a holidaymaker from Warrington, Cheshire, was "sitting sunbathing" on the hill at about midday when she was alarmed to see Edney hiking towards her stark naked.

He said: "She became aware of a male, who subsequently turned out to be the accused, who approached and said hello to her.

"She noticed this male was completely naked apart from a blue baseball cap, a pair of dark boots and a blue rucksack.

"He then sat six feet away from her.

"He appeared to be relaxed and was looking at the view, then he got up and walked off."

The woman took a photograph of Edney with her mobile, and forwarded it to police.

Then, on May 9 last year, about 1.30pm, another woman saw Edney approaching her on a hill path.

Mr McLachlan told the court: "She thought this male was naked, but he was some distance away.

"She drew closer to the male, and she asked him if he was naked.

"He said that he was. He apologised to her if he had caused any offence."

The woman phoned police as soon as she got down from the hill, and officers scoured the area without success.

Three months later, after another incident, Edney was found in a popular hillwalker's carpark with his trousers down.

Mr McLachlan said that about 2pm on August 29 three walkers were on the path to Dumyat when they saw a man coming towards them, again completely naked apart from a rucksack, cap and walking boots.

They contacted police, who found Edney in the car park "clearly naked from the waist down and pulling on some trousers".

He said he was a naturist, and had taken his shorts off in the course of his walk.

He said he had "become aware" there were people around, and claimed he "hadn't had enough time" to cover up.

Edney, of Hillfoot Farm, pleaded guilty to three charges of recklessly committing public indecency, causing alarm and annoyance.

Ken Dalling, defending, said Edney, married for 34 years with a grown-up family in their 20s, was a businessman with 20 employees.

He added: "Mr and Mrs Edney have been naturists for approximately 30 years.

"They discovered a nice beach in Yugoslavia in 1987, and the price paid to access that beach was nudity.

"He tells me he went from finding it an odd circumstance, to being liberating.

"He was a regular hill walker, taking the path less travelled, usually clothed, but he accepts that on these occasions he put himself in the position of criminality by walking naked.

"He was not intending to cause alarm."

Mr Dalling said British Naturism, of which Edney was a member, had published advice on walking naked after consultations with the Crown Office and the Scottish Government.

He said: "The only real consideration that was given in those advices was to the question of the commission of a breach of the peace."

Mr Dalling added that the Crown Office had written again to British Naturism apologising for giving "an impression" that breach of the peace was the only potential offence that might be committed by a naked walker, and detailing other offences, including that to which Edney had now pleaded guilty.

Mr Dalling said Edney was "disappointed, but sorry nonetheless" if people were offended by his nakedness.

He solicitor added: "He is not a crusader – he has no banner to fly for naturism."

Sheriff Mackie ruled there was "no significant sexual element", and Edney was admonished and not placed on the sex offenders' register.

The sheriff told him: "You arrived at court with no criminal record whatsoever, and I am sorry that you now have a record.

"The fact of a conviction for an offence of this nature carries sufficient weight and I think will suffice.

"I don't think any further financial or other penalty is necessary."

Edney's not guilty plea to a charge that he had been partly physically aroused during a naked encounter with a woman on Dumyat in June 2013 was accepted, and an allegation that during the August 2016 incident he had rambled naked in front of a group of children was dropped.