Woman who stole £85k from charity set up in memory of friend's daughter ordered to repay money
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A charity boss who stole more than £85,000 from a Scottish cancer foundation set up in memory of her best friend’s daughter and also fiddled more than £9000 from a stem cell charity is to be hit with a massive confiscation order.
But unless “complex” legal issues are solved, the money could be hoovered straight into central funds rather than repaid to the charities which suffered, it emerged today.
Lindsay MacCallum, who defrauded the cancer charity, Rainbow Valley, of £85,978 and embezzled £9,505 from the Anthony Nolan Trust, was jailed last month for three years for the crimes.
A hearing was held today under the Proceeds of Crime Act to reclaim her ill-gotten gains.
Advocate Deirdre Flanagan, for MacCallum, told Falkirk Sheriff Court that it had been agreed that the 61-year-old had personally profited to the tune of £95,483.48 pence from her criminal conduct and had total available wealth of over £175,000.
The court heard that MacCallum had already paid back £25,000 to Rainbow Valley, so the Crown sought a confiscation order under the Act for £70,483.48p.
Ms Flanagan said it was the intention that the compensation money should be divided between the charities, with the Anthony Nolan Trust getting its £9,505 back and the Rainbow Trust getting back £60,978.48p.
Sheriff Craig Harris ordered that the court should “receive” the minute of agreement, then continued the case until December 11th to see if a way can be found to ensure the cash goes back to the charities.
He pointed out that, normally, money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act goes straight to the Treasury or central funds. He said the continuation was to allow “minds to be applied” so see if there was a solution to that.
He warned: “It's a very complex legal scenario.” There were gasps from the public benches from supporters of the Rainbow Trust when it was revealed there was a danger the money might simply go into central funds.
Mother-of-two MacCallum, of Aberfoyle, Perthshire, who was not brought from prison for today's hearing, was told in October by her sentencing sheriff Maryam Labaki that she had “systematically and deliberately” perpetrated “calculating” frauds on the third sector organisations, and “betrayed” cancer victims.
The court heard that despite being in no financial difficulty, she forged signatures of Rainbow Trust staff and rerouted cash from fundraising accounts for her own use between 2011 and 2021.
She siphoned £50,000 into her own bank accounts, £5,045 into a joint account with her husband Fraser, and £1,670 into an account for grown-up children Craig and Eilidh.
She also spent £21,056 of charity money on a credit card and £4210 on products from Next. MacCallum worked as a fundraising manager for the Anthony Nolan Trust from 1995 to 2012 before she left to set up Rainbow Valley with best friend Angela MacVicar, 64.
In 2005, Angela lost her daughter Johanna to leukaemia aged just 27 and the foundation was established in her honour. The pair worked together for ten years before a fall-out in 2022. Angela stumbled upon MacCallum’s decade of deceit after discovering discrepancies in an account set up for a fundraising ball.
Mrs MacVicar said outside court in October: “I was bereft when I found out what she had done, totally bereft. She was my best friend, and I trusted her implicitly, as did everybody. She fooled everybody.”
Today Mrs MacVicar said she wanted to wait until the outcome of the December hearing before commenting further.
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