A Cardiff Sixth Form College director allegedly treated the charity’s accounts as a personal fund, as a court heard she and her husband took more than £5 million to support a lavish lifestyle.
Yasmin Sarwar, 48, denies nine theft and fraud charges relating to the college between 2008 and 2016. Her husband, Nadeem Sarwar, 50, has admitted stealing £5 million during the same period.
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that the couple established the private sixth-form college as a charity after Yasmin Sarwar began tutoring A-level students. It later attracted fee-paying international pupils and gained recognition as one of the country’s top-performing sixth-form colleges.
Opening the case, prosecutor Mark Cotter KC said the college welcomed international students from 2009 and marketed itself successfully overseas, with more than 300 teenagers eventually on its register.
He alleged that the couple were paid substantial sums for their roles but also diverted money from the college to fund properties and their lifestyle.
“The defendant and her then husband treated the college as their own personal piggy bank,” Mr Cotter told the jury. “They raided the funds to fund their own lavish lifestyles.”
The prosecutor said the alleged misuse of the school’s accounts was “so relentless and widespread” that the accountant was unable to prepare proper audited accounts.
The court heard that the couple then appointed Ragu Sivapalan, 41, as what the prosecution described as a less rigorous accountant. Mr Cotter said he accepted information provided to him “at face value” and reported false information.
Mr Sivapalan, from Penylan in Cardiff, has pleaded guilty to causing an auditor’s report on a company’s annual accounts to include misleading, false or deceptive information between January 2013 and July 2016.
Mr Cotter alleged that family members of the couple, who were originally from Malaysia, were also recruited as trustees of the college.
He described Yasmin Sarwar as “a wilful, intelligent and manipulative woman” who was a willing participant in fraudulent activity at the college.
The prosecutor further alleged that, after the couple’s relationship deteriorated, she established sham companies to divert large sums away from her husband and overseas. Yasmin Sarwar, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, denies taking money belonging to the charity and attempting to conceal it.
The trial, which is expected to last ten weeks, continues.
