The 21-year-old son of a couple who stole money to renovate the lighthouse buildings
on Scalpay, Harris, has had his home confiscated to repay their victim.
Brenda Ford-Sagers now living in Norfolk transferred the Old School House, at Kyles
Scalpay, Harris, as a “gift” to her son Theodore in 1996.
But she had already started swindling a trust fund set up by Roderick Walter for
his daughter, actress Harriet Walter.
Ford-Sagers’ financial advisor husband Robert had been entrusted to look after her
inheritance but the couple ripped her off by £100,000 over the following years.
They embezzled the cash for their pet project of restoring the ex-keepers accommodation
and redundant buildings at Eilean Glas lighthouse on Scalpay which had been sold
off by the Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB).
The lighthouse itself was never in the hands of the Ford-Sagers. The light is fully
operational and run by the NLB.
In April 2004, the senior Ford-Sagers were jailed after pleading guilty to five charges
of theft. Both had their sentences cut to two years after appeal.
The court was satisfied the Kyles house, reckoned to be currently worth between £50,000
to £100,000, was not bought with any proceeds of crime and Theodore, who was only
six at the time, was an innocent party.
However, the High Court court granted a Crown Prosecution Service request to seize
the house to fulfil a unpaid seven-year old £72,000 confiscation order to compensate
Harriet Walter.
