Malaysian-born Cardiff college founder accused of £5mil embezzlement

King’s Counsel Mark Cotter told Merthyr Crown Court that Yasmin Sarwar and her then husband, Nadeem Sarwar, established Cardiff Sixth Form College in 2008, and that Yasmin had been 'taking money that did not belong to her' and 'then tried to cover it up'. (Cardiff Sixth Form College pic) PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian-born woman who co-founded the elite education institution Cardiff Sixth Form College in Wales, UK, has been accused of embezzling £5 million from its accounts.

Yasmin Sarwar, who was a director and trustee at the college, claimed trial at Merthyr Crown Court to nine charges of theft and fraud.

The woman’s ex-husband, Nadeem Sarwar, also originally from Malaysia, pleaded guilty to stealing £5 million from the college at an earlier hearing.

BBC reported King’s Counsel Mark Cotter as saying on Wednesday that the pair established the college in 2008 and that Yasmin, 45, had been "taking money that did not belong to her" and "then tried to cover it up".

"So committed was she to draining college money into her own pocket, she was prepared to set up sham companies to divert huge sums of money away from her (then) husband and overseas once their relationship went sour," he said.

He said the college was a charitable company that made "very significant profits running into the millions". The independent college charges its A-level students more than £30,000 in annual fees and in excess of £70,000 for boarders.

Cotter said Yasmin and Nadeem, who also founded the college, "raided" its funds to "fund their own lavish lifestyles" and treated it "as their own personal piggy bank".

As the college grew in size and its finances expanded, Cotter said it was required to submit audited accounts to the authorities. An accountancy firm was appointed to prepare and audit its financial statements for the year ended Aug 31, 2011.

However, the firm informed the authorities it was unable to file the audited statements due to "protracted delays" in obtaining the necessary information. By January 2013, the college’s accounts had been handed over to another firm, Sivapalan and Co.

Suspected irregularities

The court heard that staff became suspicious by September 2015 when the college’s head of pastoral services, Gareth Collier, discovered "issues with administration and a culture of fear".

According to Cotter, Collier approached Nadeem in October 2015 about certain expenses and was told to "take what he needed" from a brown paper filled with cash.

The court also heard that Collier had noticed bank statements in his office which recorded £25,000 payments with the reference "Naz Agents Commission".

In February 2016, Drew Lewis-Robson took over the running of the college’s finances and he, too, noted irregularities.

On further examination, Cotter said Robson suspected that Nadeem and Yasmin had misappropriated college funds on a large scale.

Inspection by the Charity Commission

Following the delay in submitting financial statements, the Charity Commission visited the college to inspect its books and records and discovered "various areas of concern regarding apparent mismanagement of charitable funds".

The commission launched a statutory inquiry and appointed an interim manager at the college.

Cotter said a staff finance assistant had also asked about a sum of £1.8 million "that appeared to her to be missing from the college bank accounts".

Cotter told the court that the staff member was given two weeks’ leave while the commission was carrying out the inspection on site. She was subsequently terminated from employment and Yasmin "issued instructions that (she) was to sign a non-disclosure agreement".

According to the BBC, Nadeem, 50, pleaded guilty on Sept 29 to stealing a total of not less than £5 million between Feb 19, 2008 and Oct 31, 2016.

Ragu Sivapalan, an employee at his father’s company, Sivapalan and Co, pleaded guilty as well 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.

Nadeem and Ragu were granted bail and are expected to be sentenced at a later date. Yasmin’s trial continues.