A former employee of a teacher accused of siphoning off millions of pounds from one of Wales' top schools has alleged expenses were paid from an envelope full of cash.
Gareth Collier joined Cardiff Sixth Form College when founder Yasmin Sarwar, who is accused of a multi-million pound fraud with her ex-husband Nadeem, was in charge. He told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday that Sarwar made all the decisions at the school and was like a "spider in a web".
Allegations of cash payments
Mr Collier said: "I do mean everything, the buck stopped at her door. Most of the staff were not decision makers, they were vulnerable people who did not want responsibility. It was like a spider in a web, she was the spider you had to confer with her about everything. I cannot think of anything that would not go across her desk."
He said there was very little process or policy for expenses and that he was left feeling "uncomfortable" and "shocked" by some of the practices in place. Mr Collier told the jury: "I had been out of the country doing international marketing and paying for my expenses on my own credit card. There was no process or policy for funding international travel or people working for the college overseas. You had to pay for it yourself and I was running out of money. I brought my receipts and asked for them to be reimbursed.
"I said 'Guys I'm running out of money, you need to pay my expenses'. Nadeem picked up a brown envelope and said 'Here take what you need'. It was full of cash. I stepped backwards and went 'Whow no'. They responded to it in a joking manner... I said “I need to do this properly'. I didn't take any of the money."
Witness describes shock at bank statements
Mr Collier said the money from the envelope was effectively shared out, a chunk of money was given for petty cash. He said Yasmin Sarwar came in from her office and Nadeem and Yasmin had a chunk of cash each. Mr Cotter asked: "What was the atmosphere like in the office?" The witness said: "I felt awkward, I felt it was a bit strained and wasn't doing what was expected of me by not taking the cash. I didn't feel great about it, I felt awful."
Mr Collier joined Cardiff Sixth Form College in a student recruitment and business development role, but later went on to become acting principal when the college was sold to Dukes Education and remains a governor of the school. Cardiff Sixth Form College was originally set up in 2004 under the name Cardiff Centre of Excellence. Sarwar, 45, initially tutored A-level students at her home in Cardiff before the business grew and was renamed and located in a building on Newport Road in the city.
The company was registered as a charity and Sarwar, along with her then husband, Nadeem Sarwar, were listed as directors and therefore trustees of the charity when it was granted charity status. During the opening day of the trial on Tuesday (October 6), prosecution barrister Mark Cotter KC told the jury that charities are afforded "significant tax breaks" in comparison with companies that are not registered as charities and explained to them that profit made is not meant to be distributed to shareholders but rather it "must be used for charitable purposes".
Prosecution case and background
Mr Cotter KC told the jury that Sarwar, who is no longer married to Nadeem Sarwar, "was a wilful, intelligent and manipulative woman who was a willing participant in fraudulent activity". He also told jurors that the defendant "was prepared to set up sham companies to divert huge sums of money from her husband after their relationship went sour".
Nadeem Sarwar, 50, last week pleaded guilty to theft. The offence took place between February 19, 2008, and October 31, 2016, and related to £5m belonging to Cardiff Sixth Form College. Whilst giving evidence, Mr Collier also spoke about a time he went to Yasmin Sarwar's office and saw numerous bank statements. He said: "I sat by the coffee table in her office and there were bank statements on the coffee table in front of me. There were large regular withdrawals for £25,000 at a time."
The witness confirmed the statements appeared to have been made to Nadeem Sarwar. He added: "I have no idea what that was for. It was a ridiculous amount of money... I was in shock... (Yasmin) was worried like me, these were large amounts of money being taken out of the account and she said we need to do something about it to stop Nadeem taking out money from the account. She started talking about her divorce from Nadeem and he was taking money out of the college... This was a huge shock to me having not had real oversight or involvement in the finances. This was a huge leakage and we had to do something immediately."
The court heard that Yasmin Sarwar resigned as a director of Cardiff Sixth Form College in 2013 and set up two companies, with herself as the sole director and shareholder of both. It is the prosecution's case that she set up the companies "as a fraudulent mechanism to syphon huge sums of money from the charitable company".
In cross examination, Nigel Edwards KC asked the witness to describe Nadeem Sarwar. Mr Collier said: "He was a wheeler dealer, bit of a spiv, flash suits, flash car. Not a lot of substance." When asked if Nadeem Sarwar was an "aggressive man", Mr Collier said: "He could be loud, not physically but verbally aggressive."
Yasmin Sarwar, of Hollybush Road, Cyncoed, denies a charge of abuse of position, two counts of theft by an employee, two counts of carrying on a business of company with intent to defraud creditors/for other fraudulent purpose, acquiring/using/possessing criminal property, and three counts of concealing/disguising/converting/transferring/removing criminal property. The trial continues.
