His father, Egidio Beltrami, was an Italian-Swiss man who had moved to Scotland to open a fish and chip shop, his mother Isabella was Scottish.
[3] He struggled to find an apprenticeship at a legal firm, due to his Roman Catholic heritage, so after a period in the Intelligence Corps for his national service in the 1950s, he set up his own firm Beltrami & Co.[3] Beltrami married nurse Brigid Delores Fallon on 14 January 1958 at St Andrew's Cathedral, Glasgow, and the couple had three sons who each went on to become lawyers.
The bear disappeared during filming of an Kleenex tissue advert on Benbecula, and was missing for over three weeks.
[3] He successfully defended Glasgow crime figure Arthur Thompson on many occasions throughout the 1980s, leading to the phrase "get me Beltrami" being coined as a plea for help in desperate circumstances amongst Glaswegians during the time.
[10] Before the abolition of the death penalty in 1965, Beltrami successfully defended in 12 capital murder cases with all 12 of his client's not having to trouble the hangman.