Five men have appeared in court in connection with an alleged machete attack on Mad Dogs biker gang boss Mark “Bruni” Brown. The 63-year-old club president was returning to Scotland from a weekend in England with fellow gang members when they were allegedly set upon on the M74 near Lesmahagow on Sunday, August 2.
Police were called to the major disturbance, which involved bikers and people in four vehicles. Brown suffered serious injuries to his hands and was taken to hospital, where he underwent reconstructive surgery the following day. The alleged attack is said to have involved members of the rival Blue Angels biker gang.
Arrests and Charges
A three-month police investigation led to arrests across Lanarkshire and Ayrshire. Five men, aged 33, 37, 39, 42 and 44, appeared at Lanark Sheriff Court on Monday, November 9.
All five face charges of assault to severe injury, permanent disfigurement, permanent impairment, danger to life and attempted murder. They are also charged with breach of the peace and theft. The 37-year-old faced an additional fraudulent registration charge. They entered no plea and are scheduled to appear again within eight days.
Background of Violence
Brown later told the Record he had quit the biker group in fear of future attacks. This is not the first time the Mad Dogs Motorcycle Club, created in 2023, has been involved in trouble.
In July 2026, some club members were hit by a car outside Lorimers, a pub in Bishopton, after leaving a meeting — an incident police were treating as attempted murder. That followed a fire on Edison Street, Hillington two months earlier. No injuries were reported in either incident, but a 39-year-old man was charged in connection with both. A man aged 55 was arrested and later released pending further enquiries over the first incident.
In August 2025, violence erupted at a funeral at The Hurlet Crematorium in Barrhead. Mad Dogs members had been paying their respects to Gordon Luke, 71, who had died in a crash when machete-wielding men launched a brutal assault. A 65-year-old grandad and men aged 44 and 30 were taken to hospital after being seriously injured.
Key Figures and Past Incidents
One of the key Mad Dog figures of recent years, Dan Laponder, is currently serving a nine-year prison sentence after blowing up a van linked to a Blue Angels rival. Former club president Laponder had been a leader of the Blue Angels but left before working to found the Mad Dogs.
In June 2024, he targeted the van used by Blue Angels member David Rollo’s dad. The van had been on the street near his home in Lennoxtown when it was blown up. After extinguishing the resulting fire, crews from the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service found a pipe bomb lying underneath. The device was linked to Laponder through DNA, and fingerprints were recovered from a bottle and duct tape used in the making of the pipe bomb.
He was later traced to a barge where he was living in Kirkintilloch, and Laponder told police about a shotgun he had inside. The High Court in Glasgow was told that the bomb had been planted as retaliation for Mad Dogs members’ bikes being torched. Defence KC John Scullion also told the court: “A group of motorcyclists attended Mr Laponder’s home address and threatened him with violence.”
The gang was also linked to killer John Bingham, who in May 2024 gave what Laponder described as “a very generous financial contribution” to the club. Bingham was cleared of murder after admitting stabbing love rival Alister Milroy to death in 2013. In a separate incident, he leapt from a car before threatening a female motorcyclist in a road rage incident.
He claimed he did not know she was a female and that he had targeted her because she was wearing Blue Angels patches on her clothing and that members had torched his Maserati. He was sentenced to a Restriction of Liberty Order for 180 days and banned from the roads for three months and 26 days at Airdrie Sheriff Court.
