The ex-wife of the CEO of a Scottish clan trust with links to actor Russell Crowe and the TV series Outlander has been cleared of allegations that she embezzled thousands of pounds while working for the organisation.
Malin Heen-Allan was said to have embezzled a total of more than £47,500 while an employee of The Clanranald Trust for Scotland, a registered charity based at Kilmahog, near Callander, Perthshire.
The Trust, established in 1996, runs a tourist attraction, the Duncarron medieval village, in the Carron Valley, a reconstruction of a typical residence of an ancient Scottish clan chief.
Over the years the Trust has also provided volunteers, actors, extras and services for a swathe of box-office hits and other films, and historical re-enactments.
Heen-Allan, 48, former wife of the Trust’s chief executive, the Scottish actor and musician Charlie Allan, was accused of embezzling money 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 a jury at Falkirk Sheriff Court pored over hundreds of invoices and Trust bank statements relating to purchases – ranging from Ikea furniture to takeaway coffees.
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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 these extras.
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.
After a nine-day trial which ended on Thursday, September 22, the jury took just 25 minutes to find Mrs Heen-Allan not guilty of the single charge against her.
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.
