Rainbow Valley charity fraudster pays back stolen £86,000 - but fails to appear in court

Lindsay MacCallum , 61, defrauded Rainbow Valley after launching it with Angela MacVicar, formerly of Lochgilphead, in 2005 and also embezzled £9,505 from her former employer, the Anthony Nolan Trust.

Falkirk Sheriff Court heard on Tuesday March 5 that MacCallum had fully reimbursed both charities before the payment deadline. The fraudster, who did not appear in court, was jailed last October for three years.

Lawyers had worked out a deal to make sure that the charities which lost over £95,000 would get back every penny before a criminal confiscation order was granted, which would have diverted the money straight into Treasury funds.

MacCallum had already repaid £25,000 to Rainbow Valley and was required to pay back £60,000 to Rainbow Valley and £9,505 to the Anthony Nolan Trust.

If the money was repaid by March 2025, the Crown undertook that court action under the Proceeds of Crime Act would be withdrawn.

MacCallum, of Aberfoyle, Perthshire, 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.

She had pleaded guilty to stealing £85,000 from the Rainbow Valley cancer foundation and also taking money from the Anthony Nolan Trust stem cell charity.

The court heard that despite being in no financial difficulty, she forged signatures of Rainbow Valley 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 and £1,670 into an account for two grown-up children.

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 10 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.