The ex-wife of the CEO of a Scottish clan trust based in Perthshire has been cleared of allegations she embezzled thousands of pounds while working for the organisation.
Malin Heen-Allan was said to have embezzled a total of £47,526.94 while an employee of The Clanranald Trust for Scotland, a registered charity based at Kilmahog, near Callander, Perthshire.
The Trust, established in 1996, runs the Duncarron medieval village in the Carron Valley, near Denny, a reconstruction of a typical residence of an ancient Scottish clan chief.
The Trust has provided volunteers, actors, extras and services for box-office hits and historical re-enactments.
It has had links to Hollywood films such as Russell Crowe’s version of Robin Hood and historical TV hit Outlander.
Heen-Allan, 48, former wife of the Trust’s chief executive, the Scottish actor and musician Charlie Allan, was said to have committed the embezzlement at the Trust’s registered office at “Greenshadows”, Kilmahog, at her home, Milton Farmhouse West, Callander; and elsewhere between January 4 2016 and August 23 2018.
She said she “strenuously denied any wrongdoing” and her trial at Falkirk Sheriff Court poured over hundreds of invoices and Trust bank statements relating to purchases ranging from Ikea furniture to takeaway coffees.
After a nine-day trial which ended last week, the jury took just 25 minutes to find Mrs Heen-Allan not guilty of the single charge against her.
Accused ‘lived and breathed’ the Trust
Defence solicitor Simon Hutchison said all the debits were either legitimate or nothing to do with Mrs Heen-Allan.
He said the Trust had provided extras for films and productions such as hit series Outlander, and items such as food and clothing had to be purchased for them.
He said: “My client’s position is that these were ordered to her account, using her email address, but this was the way the Trust was run.
“The computer would be on and somebody would walk into the office and press a button and order some clothing or something for their extras, order lunch or something like that and it would all go through my client’s account but it wasn’t necessarily her that would have ordered it.”
In evidence, Mrs Heen-Allan said the Clanranald Trust had been “like her family” and she had “lived and breathed it”.
She said she would never behaved in the way alleged.
Among the exhibits at the Duncarron medieval village is a battering ram from the 2010 film Robin Hood, with Crowe in the title role, which the Oscar-winning actor donated to the Trust.
