THE crooked ex-boss of cancer charity Rainbow Valley was yesterday ordered to hand back every penny of the £95,000 she nicked.
Lindsay MacCallum, 61, was handed the ruling just weeks after she was jailed for three years for stealing from the organisation her best friend set up following her daughter’s death.
Crooked MacCallum was jailed for three years and ordered to pay back every penny[/caption]
Lindsay MacCallum (left) and Angela McVicar (right) co-founded Rainbow Valley[/caption]
Mrs MacVicar previously said she was “totally bereft” after placing her trust in the crook[/caption]
She’d pled guilty at Falkirk Sheriff Court to embezzling £85,978 from Rainbow Valley after an earlier £9,505 theft from the Anthony Nolan Trust.
A proceeds-of-crime hearing at the same court was told the mum of two made £95,483 from illegal conduct and had more than £175,000 available.
MacCallum previously repaid £25,000, so the Crown wanted to grab a further 70,483.
The fraudster, of Aberfoyle, Perthshire, was not in court to hear concerns being raised that her cash would not go back to the charities unless “complex” legal issues were solved first.
Sheriff Craig Harris told how funds recovered from criminals normally go straight to the Treasury or central funds.
Rainbow Trust’s supporters gasped when it was revealed there was a danger they might not get their money back.
The law chief continued the case to December 11 to allow “minds to be applied” and find a way to ensure the sums go back to the charities.
But he warned: “It’s a very complex legal scenario.”
MacCallum had worked as a fundraising manager for the Anthony Nolan Trust from 1995 to 2012 before she left to set up Rainbow Valley with pal Angela MacVicar, 64.
The foundation was set up in memory of Angela’s daughter Johanna, who died of leukaemia in 2005, aged 27.
The pair worked together for ten years before it emerged cash was missing.
In May 2019, they welcomed then-local MP Jo Swinson to their offices in Milngavie, near Glasgow.
The ex-Lib Dem leader later posted on Facebook: “I enjoyed meeting Lindsay and hearing about the fantastic work that Rainbow Valley does.”
We told how MacCallum was slammed at her sentencing last month.
Sheriff Maryam Labaki told her she’d “systematically” perpetrated frauds on charities and “betrayed” cancer victims.
The court heard she forged staff signatures to reroute cash from fundraising accounts for her own use between 2011-21.
She swiped £50,000 into her own bank accounts, £5,045 into a joint one with her husband and £1,670 into an account for her grown-up children.
MacCallum also spent £21,056 on a credit card and £4,210 on products from Next.
Mrs MacVicar previously said she was “totally bereft” after placing her trust in the crook, who “fooled everybody.”
The charity boss added: “She was my best friend, I trusted her implicitly. I’ll never get over it or understand why.”
