A charity boss who stole more than £85,000 from a Scottish cancer foundation set up in memory of her best friend’s daughter was jailed for three years today.
Lindsay MacCallum, 61, defrauded the charity, Rainbow Valley, which helps sufferers and their families, of £85,978. She also embezzled £9,505 from the stem cell charity the Anthony Nolan Trust.
Mother-of-two MacCallum, of Aberfoyle, Perthshire, despite being described as in no financial difficulty, forged signatures of charity staff and rerouted cash from fundraising accounts for her own use between 2011 and 2021.
She was told by a sheriff she had “systematically and deliberately” perpetrated “calculating” frauds on the third sector organisations, and “betrayed” cancer victims.
MacCallum, who appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court by video link from prison, hung her head as Sheriff Maryam Labaki added: “The purpose of the Rainbow Valley charity was to support the families of those suffering from cancer.
“You betrayed those who are suffering, and the terminally ill and their families. You deprived them of funds raised in good faith. You have brought devastation to those who trusted you.”
Falkirk Sheriff Court heard MacCallum 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.
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. Katie Cunningham, prosecuting, told the court: “The accused sent a message to Mrs MacVicar stating, ‘I’m really sorry Angela.
“I hate myself, I’m trying to make it right. I’ve let everyone down and Fraser is distraught’. She said she was ashamed and it was ‘abhorrent’ that she had transferred money from the account into her own.
“The accused said her daughter Eilidh was in terrible trouble and needed access to money. She said that she was finding it difficult to live with herself.”
Miss Cunningham said: “A bank account called Aberfoyle Friends of the Anthony Nolan Trust remained open from July 2011 to 2016. The accused debited that account and paid into her own account.
“The payments were signed by another charity member but when asked about these signatures, she said they were not her signature.”
MacCallum was made project development manager of Rainbow Valley and in 2014 was given a charity credit card to replace using a Friends of Rainbow Valley’ bank account.
But the account remained in use and it was not until August 2022, after a fall out between the friends, that questions were raised over transactions from this account.
MacCallum, a first offender, former Royal Navy servicewoman, and one-time assistant to an MP, pleaded guilty to two fraud charges totalling £95,483.
Defence advocate Deirdre Flanagan said MacCallum had already paid back £25,000 of the money taken, was able to repay the rest, and intended to do so.
Asked by the sheriff what MacCallum’s explanation was for taking the money, Ms Flanagan replied: “I have consulted with her many times and she is not able to tell me.”
She said MacCallum had expressed “shame and mortification” for her actions. MacCallum will face a court hearing in November under the Proceeds of Crime Act at which the Crown will seek an order to confiscate her ill-gotten gains.
Outside court, Mrs MacVicar said the sentence “sent a message” that crimes like MacCallum’s would not be tolerated. She said: “It is heartbreaking when an individual creates negativity within the third sector.
“The ripple effect of Lindsay MacCallum runs deep, and I ask that people remember this was one person and one person alone who breached the trust which was bestowed upon her.”
She added: “There was no mention from her about what this has done to our family and my daughter’s name. I think she was sorry she was caught – no mention of being sorry for the devastation she has caused us and Johanna’s memory.
“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.”
Helen Nisbet, Procurator Fiscal for Tayside, Central and Fife, said: “This was a shocking betrayal of trust by someone who had financial oversight of funds from two cancer charities.
“I am sure people will be appalled that charity donations given in good faith and intended to benefit some of those affected by cancer have been stolen to fund McCallum’s lifestyle.
“It is vital that the public have confidence that the money they raise and donate to charity goes to those for whom it was intended. The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service is committed to tackling financial crime of this kind.”
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