Lindsay MacCallum: Aberfoyle woman stole £85,000 from best friend’s cancer charity
A charity boss who stole more than £95,000 from two cancer foundations – including one set up in memory of a best friend’s daughter – has been described as a “total narcissist” who “fooled everybody”.
Lindsay MacCallum, 61, was jailed for three years earlier this month for defrauding charity Rainbow Valley out of £85,978.48 while working as a project development manager.
She also stole £9,505 from Aberfoyle Friends of Anthony Nolan Trust – a stem cell donation charity – while employed as a fundraising manager.
Rainbow Valley was founded by Angela MacVicar in memory of her late daughter, Johanna, who died from leukaemia at the age of 27.
MacCallum, who also helped to set up the charity, had been friends with Ms MacVicar for more than 20 years.
At one point during their friendship, the pair would talk several times a day, with MacCallum even volunteering to read the eulogy at Johanna’s funeral.
Ms MacVicar’s daughter, Johanna, befriended pop star Robbie Williams through her leukaemia campaign work. Pic: PA
‘She fooled everybody’
Speaking to Sky News, Ms MacVicar said she at first did not want to believe her friend had deceived her.
She said: “I loved her, I trusted her, but she fooled everybody. She’s a total narcissist and it’s quite scary. It was all lies.
“She knows what she’s done. I’ve got nothing to say to her… I don’t even know who she is.”
MacCallum during an event. Pic: Rainbow Valley
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) said MacCallum worked with the Anthony Nolan charity between 1995 and 2012.
Her role allowed her to carry out transactions provided any cheques were countersigned by one of two office bearers.
By 2007, the two signatories had left the group but the account for Aberfoyle Friends of Anthony Nolan remained open.
Forged signatures
MacCallum, of Aberfoyle in Stirlingshire, was made redundant from the charity in 2012 but continued to take funds from the account by forging signatures.
Falkirk Sheriff Court was told MacCallum made a number of unauthorised cheque payments between July 2011 and September 2016, with the former co-signatories recognising her handwriting during the police investigation.
Pic: Rainbow Valley
COPFS said MacCallum joined Rainbow Valley in 2012 and worked with Ms MacVicar for several years “before their relationship deteriorated”.
She stepped down in March 2022, but was snared later that year after a review of the accounts revealed several unaccounted-for-transactions linked to the charity’s annual ball.
Between 2013 and 2021, MacCallum deposited £48,027 into two personal bank accounts, £5,045 into a joint account with her husband, and £1,670 into accounts for her adult children.
She was also revealed to have spent £21,056 on a credit card as well as £4,210 on products from Next.
‘It hurts a lot’
Ms MacVicar, whose daughter Kendall uncovered the fraud, said: “She did it because she was greedy and vain. She liked people to think she was well-off.
“I’m just unfortunate that she preyed on my vulnerability. It hurts a lot because she actually asked to read Johanna’s eulogy at her funeral.”
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MacCallum pleaded guilty to two charges of being involved in a fraudulent scheme when she appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court in August.
She was jailed for three years on her return to the dock on 8 October and will now be subject to confiscation action under proceeds of crime legislation.
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 MacCallum’s lifestyle.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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