Woman who stole £85,000 from charity in memory of friend's daughter ordered to repay money

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 more than £9,000 from a stem cell charity has been ordered to pay the money back.

However, unless “complex” legal issues are solved, the money could be transferred straight into central funds rather than repaid to the charities that suffered.

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 on Friday under the Proceeds of Crime Act to reclaim the money.

Advocate Deirdre Flanagan for MacCallum said it had been agreed that the 61-year-old had personally profited £95,483 from her criminal conduct and had a 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 £70,484.

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.

Sheriff Craig Harris ordered that the court should “receive” the minutes of the agreement, then continued the case until December 11 to see if a way can be found to ensure the cash goes back to the charities.

He pointed out that money recovered under the Proceeds of Crime Act typically goes straight to the Treasury or central funds.

He said the continuation was to allow “minds to be applied” to see if there was a solution to that.

He warned: “It’s a very complex legal scenario.”

Supporters of the Rainbow Trust gasped from the public benches when it was revealed that there was a danger the money might simply be transferred to central funds.

Mother-of-two MacCallum, of Aberfoyle, Perthshire, was not brought from prison for the hearing but 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 £4,210 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 fallout 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.”

Mrs MacVicar said she wanted to wait until the outcome of the December hearing before commenting further.