WIFE SHOWS TV PUNDIT JIM RED CARD NUMBER 2

0 Comments | Sunday Mirror, Jul 2, 2006 | by THOMAS SMITH

SKY sports pundit Jim White has been dumped by his long- suffering wife ...AGAIN.

The smooth-talking TV host was ditched by Avril just months after they'd got their rocky relationship back on track.

Now the pounds 150,000-a-year star on Sky is living in a modest Glasgow B&B - and is back with his mistress Carol Allan.

Avril first dumped White three years ago after she grew fed of of his boozing.

Then a private investigator hired by her to monitor his boozing antics discovered Jim was having a secret fling with married Carol.

The discovery led to police being called to White's posh home in Glasgow's southside after a row broke out when Avril found Carol had been there.

At one point, White was discovered standing weeping outside his front door, with a towel wrapped around him. It was widely assumed the marriage had collapsed. But last October, we revealed that Jim and Avril were back together and trying to patch things up.

He took her to France on holiday as they attempted to get the marriage back on track.

But now he has been dumped AGAIN and is staying in a pounds 30-a- night B & B when in Glasgow. And he has again become close to Carol, who is now single after leaving her husband Ian.

Jim, one of Scotland's most recognisable TV faces, last night claimed he and Carol were "just friends" and said he was "single again".

But friends of Carol, 44, insisted the pair's romance was fully back on.

And Carol herself said: "My relationship with Jim is not a secret. Why are you interested in us? I'm not about to discuss my love life."

News that long-time pals Jim and Avril were back together was welcomed last year by friends. But the reunion proved short-lived and they parted.

Now White, who has a home in West London near Sky's HQ, is living in a B&B in Finnieston on weekly trips back to Glasgow.

It was revealed at the time of the first split that White was going on drinking sessions in Glasgow's West End - sometimes with complete strangers he befriended on shuttle flights back from London. Avril grew fed up with him bringing people back to their home for late-night knees-ups after the pubs closed.

He remains a regular at the famous Tennents bar on Byres Road, where he was seen last week arriving at midday, having spent much of the previous day there too.

Carol, a boss in a Glasgow restaurant, lives in a plush villa in Bishopriggs. Her husband Ian has moved out and stays in a luxury Clydeside apartment.

Carol and Ian were caught up in one of Scotland's biggest-ever drugs cases.

The pair walked free from court in 1994 after being arrested in a pounds 14million heroin bust.

They were arrested after police found a hold-all full of heroin in a left-luggage locker at Glasgow's Queen Street station following an unrelated bomb scare. Officers set a trap and switched the drug packages with dummy parcels of salt. Carol's husband Ian - an alleged "Mister Big" - was arrested when he turned up at the locker.

According to police, he had assets of up to pounds 750,000, despite earning just pounds 21,000 as a heating engineer.

The jury at Glasgow's High Court judged him to be an "innocent dupe" and he walked free.

The source said: "Jim splits his time between London and Glasgow and seems to be a bit lonely at the minute.

"It seems a bit out of place that a guy as wealthy as him is staying in a B&B place when he'll be used to be business class travel working for Sky. Everyone says he is missing Avril badly, but he has only really got himself to blame for the collapse of the marriage."

They wed in a low-key service in 2001.

It was a a second marriage for both. TV pundit White has become one of Sky Sports' biggest names. Since quitting STV to join Sky, he has been flying between Glasgow and London.

He is known for his love of Rangers and once famously asked former Rangers star Brian Laudrup: "Why are you so good?"

Last year he was banned from driving for a year and fined pounds 750 after failing to a breath test, telling police: "I'm providing f***** zero."

White presented Scotsport for nine years, but after falling out of favour in that job he joined Sky in 1998.

He had been heard urging Rangers on to score more goals against Dunfermline during a report for Radio Clyde. After the Italian defender Sergio Porrini scored, White said: "Let's hope they can score a few more."

White was also pictured at a club supporters' dance putting on an Orange flute band jacket.

Avril was unavailable for comment last night.