A couple who founded the country’s leading private sixth-form college used the institution as a personal “piggy bank” to finance a luxury lifestyle that included Rolex watches and grand pianos, a court has heard.
Yasmin Sarwar, 48, who styled herself a “tiger mum”, and her husband Nadeem, 50, established Cardiff Sixth Form College as a charity before allegedly siphoning more than £5 million in parents’ tuition fees.
Jurors were shown details of a series of payments recorded as “expenses”, which the prosecution says were used to fund the Sarwars’ extravagant spending.
In December 2013, a £30,000 yellow-gold Rolex was purchased from Watches of Switzerland at Cardiff’s St David’s shopping centre.
Mrs Sarwar, a director of the charity, then took the newly purchased watch to nearby jeweller Pravins while looking for a pair of earrings.
A shop assistant described her as appearing at ease in the boutique and “very knowledgeable about fine, high-end jewellery”.
The jury heard that Mrs Sarwar showed the assistant the Rolex and said she had secured a “good discount” on the watch.
She then told the assistant that she could obtain the same discount.
Yasmin Sarwar, 48, is on trial accused of stealing more than £5 million from Cardiff Sixth Form College, which she founded with her husband Nadeem “in order to fund their lavish lifestyle”.
Nadeem Sarwar, 50, pictured outside court, has admitted stealing £5 million from Cardiff Sixth Form College between February 2008 and October 2016.
The court was also told that the Sarwars bought platinum and diamond earrings costing £23,000.
In February 2014, they purchased two grand pianos from Gardeners Pianos in Cardiff. A £2,688 Kawai piano was later delivered to the college.
The second piano, a £13,312 Kawai, was instead delivered to the Sarwar family’s home in the affluent Cyncoed area of Cardiff.
The prosecution alleges that Mrs Sarwar was a “wilful, intelligent and manipulative woman” who became a “willing participant in fraudulent activity”.
Prosecutors further claim that, after the Sarwars’ relationship “went sour”, she was prepared to establish sham companies in order to divert “huge sums of money from her husband”.
Prosecutor Mark Cotter KC said Mrs Sarwar began by tutoring A-level students before founding Cardiff Sixth Form College, which went on to become a “top performing” institution with international recognition.
The couple registered the college as a charity and then allegedly took millions of pounds to purchase properties and support what the prosecution described as a “lavish lifestyle”.
Mr Cotter told the court: “Yasmin Sarwar and her then husband treated the college as their own personal piggy bank.
Cardiff Sixth Form College became one of the country’s top-performing academic institutions and reached the top of the A-level league tables in 2010.
“They raided the funds generated by the college to pay for their own lavish lifestyles and, in doing so, defrauded the charity.”
‘So relentless and widespread was their assault on the charitable funds that it proved impossible for the accountants retained by the college, to produce proper audited accounts.’
Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard the couple then hired Ragu Sivapalan, 41, as a ‘new, less rigorous accountant’ who took what they said at ‘face value’ to report false information.
Mr Cotter said the college first welcomed fee-paying international students in 2009 and began successfully marketing internationally.
He said: ‘It became one of the top performing sixth form colleges in the country with international recognition.’
The court heard the couple, both originally from Malaysia, also recruited family members to sit as trustees on the school board.
Mr Cotter said: ‘Yasmin Sarwar was a wilful, intelligent and manipulative woman who was a willing participant in the fraudulent activity taking place in the college.
‘So committed was she to the draining of college money into her own pocket, she was prepared to set up sham companies to divert huge sums of money away from her husband, after their relationship went sour, and overseas.’
The court heard Mrs Sarwar set up two companies called Ayass Ltd and Ayass Guardianship Ltd to allegedly run ‘welfare programmes’ for students at the school.
The companies were set up in the lead up to the divorce petition between the couple in 2014 before ‘vast sums of money’ were sent to Malaysia and ‘never seen again.’
The court heard the companies were allegedly running schemes including a summer school and the Goodwill Ambassadors Programme – known as GAP – paid for by students.
But it was the college providing the services while Yasmin’s Sarwar’s companies were being paid huge sums.
EXPLORE MORE: Hamas Terrorists Turning on Each Other – NewsFinale
Mr Cotter said: ‘The two ‘Ayass’ companies set up by Yasmin were used by her as a fraudulent mechanism to siphon off huge sums of money from the charitable company and into her own hands and away from Nadeem as, by this stage, their relationship had turned sour.’
The court heard the finances were questioned after the college employed new Head of Pastoral Services Gareth Collier in September 2015.
Mr Collier, who identified a ‘culture of fear,’ became suspicious about the college’s finances after approaching Nadeem Sarwar about expenses for an overseas trip.
Mr Cotter said: ‘Following an overseas trip Mr Collier approached Nadeem with regards his expenses incurred on the trip and was told to ‘take what he needed’ from a brown paper bag filled with cash.
‘Mr Collier also noticed bank statements in Nadeem’s office which recorded £25,000 payments with the reference ‘Naz Agents Commission’.’
The court heard Mr Collier approached Yasmin Sarwar to raise his concerns before she immediately tried to blame her husband for ‘taking money out of the college.’
Mr Cotter said: ‘The response of Yasmin, in openly blaming Nadeem when confronted, is consistent with her attitude to the allegations in this trial – where she continues to blame Nadeem for everything and denies any responsibility herself.’
The court heard the college came under further scrutiny when it was late submitting financial statements for the year ending August 2014.
Staff were told the Charity Commission would be carrying out a visit to inspect their books and records in 2016.
But Mrs Sarwar then told finance assistant Hindia Ahmed to take two weeks annual leave during their inspection.
Mr Cotter said: ‘Hindia Ahmed’s role meant she would have been of assistance to the Charity Commission in carrying out their inspection.
‘However, she had previously questioned Yasmin, Nadeem and Ragu Sivapalan as to £1.8m of funds that appeared to her to be missing from the college bank accounts.’
The court heard Yasmin later called for Hindia Ahmed to sign a ‘non-disclosure agreement’ which she referred to as a ‘gagging order’ in an attempt to silence her.
The court heard the Sarwars set up a board of 11 trustees including respected teacher John Price-Thomas, his wife Carol and later their son Huw.
But four of the other trustees were related to the Sarwars including Nadeem Sarwar’s sister, his cousins and Yasmin Sarwar’s sister.
Mr Cotter said ‘financial decisions were not being made by the trustees’ but were instead being made by the Sarwars ‘including the setting of their very substantial salaries.’
Mr Cotter said trustees John and Carol Price-Thomas were ‘well meaning’ but did not ‘fully grasp their responsibilities’ or hold the Sarwars to account.
The court heard the Sarwars announced they wanted to convert the college into a private business in 2013 and would no longer need trustees.
Mr Price-Thomas, his wife and son resigned to allow for the change from charitable status – but the private business was never set up and new trustees were recruited.
Mr Cotter said the Sarwars asked school mum Nabeela Sheik to be a trustee even though they were told she had ‘poor spoken English and could not read or write well in English either.’
The court heard Mrs Sarwar said she was have to ‘just sit there’ when she attended the meetings.
Mr Cotter said: ‘Her first language is Urdu and she speaks little English. She had no understanding of what she was being asked to do as a trustee.
‘She attended a few meetings during her two years as a trustee, understood nothing of what was being spoken about and was never asked to vote on anything.’
The court heard minutes from trustees meetings were ‘fabricated’ when referring to Yasmin and Nadeem Sarwar’s salaries, the process of replacing trustees and annual reports and financial statements.
Mr Cotter said investigators found Yasmin Sarwar transferred over £1.1m of college money to her mother’s account in Malaysia.
Mr Cotter said Mrs Sarwar also bought a £1.1m house in Cardiff, falsely made claims for rent on other properties she claimed were being used by the college and stole money to carry out renovations.
Accountant Sivapalan, of Penylan, Cardiff, 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.
Nadeem Sarwar admitted stealing £5m from Cardiff Sixth Form College between 19 February 2008 and 31 October 2016.
Yasmin Sarwar, 48, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, denies nine theft and fraud charges between 2008 and 2016 totalling more than £5m.
The college had more than 300 students on its register and attracts children from all around the world, including Albania and China.
The trial, due to last ten weeks, continues.