Charity crook is told to pay back £1.5m he blew on cars, houses and a wind turbine
A RETIRED architect who stole money from a charity to buy flash cars and a wind turbine is being chased for more than £1.5million by prosecutors.
Ian Brash, 66, embezzled more than £350,000 from the Dr Robert Malcolm Trust, which provides financial help to medical students and doctors.
Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard Brash had been a trustee of the charity for more than 15 years before he began taking money from its bank account.
The pensioner used the cash to buy himself an Alfa Romeo and two new Land Rovers and gave his children tens of thousands of pounds for deposits for buy-to-let properties.
He also bought a wind turbine and paid off large vet bills.
Brash pleaded guilty to embezzling £358,832 from the charity between August 12, 2010, and September 10, 2014, before Sheriff Frank Crowe in August 2018.
Sheriff Crowe heard Brash is trying to sell 15th century Fa’side Castle, near Tranent, East Lothian, to raise funds to pay back the stolen cash.
Now it has emerged Crown lawyers are seeking £1,590,512.69 from Brash using proceeds of crime legislation.
The revelation became known after a hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court yesterday.
Sheriff Crowe deferred sentence on Brash until next month after hearing his defence advocate say that the retired architect is ‘anxious’ to repay the charity.
During proceedings last year, the court heard how the charity was set up in 1987 by one of Brash’s relatives, Janie Millar, who had inherited around £1million from her uncle Robert Malcolm’s estate. Miss Millar made grants of between £250 and £1,000 to up to 15 applicants to the charity each year.
She asked Brash to become a trustee in the late 1980s. When Miss Millar died in 2002, Brash became the sole trustee, and his children later became trustees.
The court heard how the charity bought a property in Windermere, Cumbria, for £172,018 in 1995 and after Brash had taken sole control of its finances, the house was sold for £500,000.
He transferred most of the money into the trading company account before moving large sums into a personal share dealing account. The money was used to buy shares, with the profits transferred into his own bank account.
However, the police became aware of Brash’s activities and gathered sufficient evidence to show that he was carrying out a scam against the charity.
He told detectives that the charity cash had become ‘mixed up’ with his own money. But he later admitted his guilt.
Prosecutors are now seeking to recover money from Brash using proceeds of crime legislation.
Brash’s advocate, Mark Stewart, QC, said his client wanted to repay the money that he had taken.
He said Brash still had to sell Fa’side Castle, but had a ‘number of viewers’ looking at the property.
Mr Stewart added: ‘Mr Brash is still anxious about the matter.
‘He is willing to repay the sum back to the charity to ensure it returns to the way things used to be.’
Mr Stewart also said that his client may have difficulties repaying the sum back to the charity in the light of the proceeds of crime action.
He said this was because some of the money that could be repaid would have to be spent on instructing accountants to act in the proceeds of crime action.
Mr Stewart said that if his client could repay the money back then there might not be a need for the proceeds of crime action to continue.
Brash will be sentenced on July 15.
‘He is willing to repay the sum’