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.

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.

“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. 

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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. 

At 34, Adelaide carpenter Scott Kingston Mayne had no warning that an ordinary day was about to become a fight for survival.

He had recently completed another AFL season and was looking ahead to the future with his girlfriend, Lara, 29. The couple were planning to buy their first home and start a family.

Instead, on the morning of August 18, a routine job at a marina in Brunswick Heads, northern NSW, was interrupted by sudden, agonising pain in Scott’s jaw—the first sign of a medical crisis that would leave him fighting for his life.

Within hours, he would be transferred between two hospitals and placed in an induced coma as surgeons carried out an extraordinary 18-hour operation. Lara and Scott’s family were left waiting anxiously for news.

More than three weeks on, Scott is only beginning to understand what happened. He effectively lost two weeks of his life and woke to learn how close his seemingly normal workday had come to ending in tragedy.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Lara said there had been no indication that her partner was about to become critically ill when he left for work that morning.

Scott was digging up pavers at the job site when, at about 9am, he was struck by intense pain in his jaw.

The pain soon spread into his chest, then moved through his back towards his stomach. Frightened, Scott called Lara and asked what he should do.

Lara, a nurse and midwife, immediately recognised that the symptoms might signal something serious and told him not to take any risks.

‘I had a bit of an inkling that it was something really bad. He was freaking out,’ she recalled.

By remarkable coincidence, Scott was working with his colleague Matt that morning. He usually worked alone and often travelled to jobs in rural areas of the state.

Lara instructed him to call an ambulance, then got into her car and drove to Brunswick Heads, arriving soon after paramedics.

Scott was taken to Tweed Hospital, where blood tests and CT scans revealed a severe aortic dissection—a tear in the body’s main artery.

The gravity of the diagnosis became clear to Lara almost immediately. After Scott’s scan, the radiologist emerged and told her it was a ‘full dissection’.

Because she had cared for patients with similar conditions as a nurse, Lara understood how dangerous the situation could be.

‘I know exactly what that means,’ she said.

‘I’ve looked after patients that have been in that situation. I was like, “How the hell is this our life?”‘

What made the diagnosis even harder to comprehend was that Scott had appeared to be the picture of health before that morning.

Lara described him as someone who was constantly active, saying he had recently completed another season of AFL and was rarely ever sitting still.

Scott could not recall experiencing any concerning symptoms in the preceding months either, and there is no known family history of the condition.

With time critical, he was transferred by ambulance from Tweed Hospital to Gold Coast University Hospital, where he was taken straight into surgery.

He remained conscious and able to talk throughout the transfer and until doctors placed him into an induced coma, before surgeons began an extraordinary operation that would ultimately last 18 hours.

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The couple had moved from Adelaide to Lennox Head almost two years earlier and had no family living nearby, leaving Lara to make a series of difficult phone calls to Scott’s loved ones as he was being rushed to the Gold Coast.

Afterwards, Scott needed to remain on a bypass machine for his heart before he spent 10 days in an induced coma as his body began the huge task of recovering.

Despite the enormity of what he has endured, Lara said Scott is now ‘absolutely smashing goals’ in his recovery, although the previously energetic carpenter remains significantly weaker after spending so long confined to a hospital bed.

The weakness has been particularly frustrating because he is left-handed and, as a carpenter, was accustomed to spending his days working with his hands.

His voice has also been affected, with Lara explaining that the nature of the surgery can impact the nerve leading to the vocal cords, while the breathing tube used during his treatment has also left the area swollen.

However, she said his voice is gradually becoming stronger and his recovery continues to move in the right direction each day.

While it remains difficult to know exactly how long Scott’s rehabilitation will take, doctor’s have estimated it could be between six months and a year before he is able to return to full working function.

‘It will probably just be a long road of getting him healthy and fit again,’ she said.

‘Slowly but surely.’

‘We’re extremely lucky and count our lucky stars every day that he’s here and that he’s getting better.’

Amid the hospital stays, rehabilitation and uncertainty, however, there have already been small moments that have made life feel a little more normal. 

After spending three weeks apart, Scott was recently reunited with the couple’s dog when she was allowed to visit him in hospital, something Lara described as a ‘very lovely’ moment.

And while their plans to return to Adelaide may have been unexpectedly delayed, Lara remains grateful that they still have the opportunity to make them happen. 

You can donate to Scott’s GoFundMe here.

Katie, it seems we barely had time to meet you.

After a tenure lasting less than half the time Anthony Scaramucci spent at the podium, Donald Trump’s new press secretary has been forced to surrender her designer blazer and leave the job.

A cast member at Saturday Night Live hoping for a long and successful run would be devastated. Inside the White House, however, there was likely an audible sigh of relief when Katie Zacharia was pushed out after less than a week in the role.

Scaramucci, who still holds the record for the shortest stint at the White House podium at 11 days, offered Zacharia words of support on social media. “Turn off the news and go enjoy your family. In time you’ll realize that the Universe did you a major favor,” he wrote.

He may well be right.

Zacharia appears to be leaving 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue with the metaphorical knives of her colleagues lodged firmly in the back of her impeccably tailored blazer.

So what brought down Katie “I’m a lawyer!” Zacharia?

The prevailing view is that she broke one of the cardinal rules of Trumpworld: never make the boss look bad.

Here is how her disastrous final 72 hours unfolded:

The trouble began almost at once on Tuesday morning, when Zacharia was sent into the bear pit of the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room. She stumbled through her opening remarks, repeatedly faltered and nervously lowered her gaze while reading from her prepared script.

It was easy to imagine the White House press corps sensing an opportunity, like predators detecting blood in the water.

Zacharia attempted to limit the damage by taking only three questions. Only one focused on policy.

Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked whether the United States had stopped sharing intelligence with Ukraine.

Zacharia said she could not answer.

She then called on the Daily Mail’s Elina Shirazi and disclosed that President Trump had asked Kimberly Guilfoyle, the US ambassador to Greece, to resign.

That revelation was news in itself.

But was it also a warning of what was to come?

After just 14 minutes, Zacharia brought the briefing to an abrupt end and directed reporters to the White House South Lawn, where the President was preparing to leave for a campaign rally in Alaska.

There, it got worse.

Already, journalists had caught the whiff of scandal after digging into Zacharia’s background.

In multiple TV appearances and on LinkedIn, Zacharia had described herself as a lawyer and even a ‘general counsel.’ President Trump had identified her as an ‘attorney’.

But was she really?

‘Where did she pass the bar exam?’ a reporter asked the President. He turned to Zacharia and relayed the query.

From behind dark sunglasses she gave a bizarre, head-scratching answer: ‘When I moved to China.’

What on Earth did that mean?

Trump himself appeared to do a double take.

Zacharia later told the New York Times she had ‘misheard’ the question over the sound of Marine One, thinking the journalist had asked: ‘Where were you after law school?’

An army of journalists later confirmed with the Committee of Bar Examiners in all 50 states that she had not passed the bar exam anywhere.

Worse still, she had failed the test in California in 2011 and then never took it again.

Hours after the briefing, Zacharia was seen boarding Air Force One, with the presidential ‘A’ team. Strolling across the runway at Joint Base Andrews with Trump aide Natalie Harp, Zacharia beamed like a cat that had got the cream. Perhaps Harp, dubbed the ‘human printer,’ had not printed out the coruscating reviews of her performance that were publishing online.

By this time, anonymous White House insiders had begun undermining her performance.

‘She looked as if she was handed a sheet of paper at the last minute and wasn’t prepared properly,’ a Trump world source said. ‘So who in the building wanted to see her fail?’

‘Her hiring and the briefing shows this White House is collapsing now that they’re facing real pressure,’ a senior Trump administration official told the Daily Mail.

The White House later denied that anyone had sabotaged her debut. However, by the time Air Force One returned from the trip to Alaska, it was clear Zacharia had serious damage control to do.

The negative press continued through Wednesday.

On Thursday, she launched a media tour to save her job, heading first for friendly territory, the studio of the network Real America’s Voice for a sit-down with host Jack Posobiec.

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Her ascent to White House press secretary had all been a bit of a rush, she explained to Posobiec. Last week, she was in a pumpkin patch in California with her son when the President called, so she hot footed it to Washington.

‘I woke up at 3 in the morning on Tuesday to prepare with what I had…’ she said, adding that the materials for her to use in the briefing weren’t finalized until 8am.

Briefings are normally in the afternoon, she explained. Hers was scheduled for 9.30am because take-off for Alaska was scheduled later in the morning.

She seemed to be offering excuses.

The controversy over her legal credentials was a ‘miscommunication,’ she claimed.

She had earned a law degree from Pepperdine and had asked ‘many people in the field’ if it was kosher to label herself a ‘lawyer’ giving ‘legal analysis, not legal advice’ and it was, they said.

Considering the outcry, Zacharia seemed confident in her career prospects at that point, even joking with Posobiec about who she wanted to play her on SNL – she favored Scarlett Johansson.

Daily Mail columnist Mark Halperin reported that afternoon that White House staffers were trading stories about her time in China, raising concerns over a lack of vetting.

On Thursday night, it was on to Fox News for an appearance with primetime host Sean Hannity.

That did not go quite as she might have anticipated.

Hannity appeared a little funereal as he opened up: ‘Katie, I know this is a widely viewed interview for you….’

She wore a smile fixed like dried concrete. Her briefing had been ‘widely panned, I’m sure you’re aware…’ Hannity continued. She ‘didn’t pass the bar exam,’ he added.

‘Yeees… Sean,’ Zacharia said, her smile setting even more rigidly.

She had failed the bar exam because, she explained, that had all been a bit of a rush too. She had graduated Pepperdine and got married in the same week and was planning to move to China, so the results of the bar exam had been ‘inconsequential.’ She took the test to avoid a record of her ‘withdrawing.’

Then, Hannity hit her with the evidence, a report that she had identified herself at least 15 times on social media, not just as a ‘lawyer’ but as an ‘attorney.’

The fixed smile now looked like rigor mortis.

‘I think they were retweets, and I corrected the record,’ she responded icily. ‘They were retweets of a title that had been given.’

Zacharia went on to parrot a now-familiar line, she had ‘stepped up to the plate with very little prep time’ for the briefing. And in a remarkably rosy take on the reaction to her briefing, she suggested the reviews had been ‘mixed.’

‘Am I hearing that you think the staff should have prepped you better?’ Hannity asked, sounding more like a disappointed parent than a sympathetic shoulder.

Meanwhile journalists were starting to dig into what work she did for a Chinese law firm and the work biography of her husband that indicated he had helped ‘build teams’ in North Korea.

The following day, on Friday morning, Zacharia tried again on Fox News’s Fox & Friends.

Host Lawrence Jones asked her pointedly if she had the confidence of the president.

‘I’m standing here and I was able to travel with him through… the midterm rallies and I hope to be able to build the trust and confidence of everyone around me,’ she said.

Pushing back against suggestions that she should have clarified her legal qualifications to the White House before being hired, Zacharia appeared somewhat like she was throwing her new employer under the bus.

‘Those questions weren’t asked,’ she said. ‘I’m being hired as White House press secretary, not White House counsel.’

Shortly after that, it seems, President Trump had seen enough.

In a lengthy exchange with reporters outside the White House, he said of Zacharia’s position: ‘Maybe it’s not for her.’

The media had been ‘nasty,’ he claimed, and revealed that he had told Zacharia moments earlier: ‘I think you’re better off being happy.’

Soon, it became official. She’d be ‘transitioning’ out of the role.

As firings go, it was done with a velvet glove – and that may be because she was reportedly Trump’s choice and Trump’s alone.

The Daily Mail reported before Zacharia’s debut briefing that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles played no part in Zacharia’s selection.

What’s next for Zacharia?

She and her family are scheduled to have dinner with Vice President JD Vance and his family on Friday night, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail.

Maybe, we’ll see more of her around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

We wish her the best.

Andy Lee and Rebecca Harding have unveiled the first photographs from their fairytale wedding in New York City.

The newlyweds channelled timeless glamour and old Hollywood elegance in a carousel shared on Instagram on Saturday morning.

In the opening image, a beaming Rebecca leans into her husband during a tender rooftop embrace overlooking the Big Apple.

A second black-and-white photograph shows the couple laughing together, while a third captures an intimate moment from the ceremony as they hold hands and appear to exchange vows.

Rebecca also showcased her breathtaking Steven Khalil wedding gown in another image, posing with a delicate bouquet of white roses.

The last stunning image taken by photographer Jack Henry captures Andy and Rebecca in a romantic embrace as they prepare to shared their first kiss as husband and wife.

The couple kept the caption simple, writing: ‘JUST MARRIED – 13.10.26’.

Their picture-perfect nuptials were quickly met with an outpouring of congratulations from wedding guests and celebrity friends.

‘The most dazzling wedding ceremony I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Pure magic, Mr & Mrs Lee,’ wrote Zoe Foster Blake.

‘Soooooooo gorgeous! Congrats you two xxxxx,’ fashion designer Pip Edwards added.

Channel Seven star Rebecca Maddern also joined the well-wishers, writing: ‘Love and laughter: the perfect ingredients for a wonderful life together. Congratulations.’

Further messages of love came from Home and Away star Ada Nicodemou, radio personality Amanda Keller and Queen WAG Bec Judd.

Andy and Rebecca marked their New York wedding with an A-list celebration on Tuesday, joined by major names from the worlds of film, television and comedy at an event described as ‘the party of the year’.

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The couple exchanged vows in the Big Apple after 12 years together before hosting a star-studded reception.

The 45-year-old comedian and 36-year-old model married at the Nine Orchard Hotel in Manhattan’s Lower East Side shortly before sunset.

Among the guests were famous friends including Hugh Jackman, who attended without his girlfriend Sutton Foster, along with Hamish Blake and his wife Zoë, American comedian Nikki Glaser, Nova radio host Lauren Phillips and her aviation tycoon fiancé Paul O’Brien, and cricketer Dan Christian.

Following the ceremony, the newlyweds were seen kissing on the venue’s rooftop terrace.

Rebecca looked stunning in a white corseted strapless gown and veil, smiling as she cuddled up to her husband for photographs with a large bouquet of white roses in hand.

The newlyweds and their A-list guests then descended on Chinatown hotspot Apotheke for a black-tie reception, with some piling into waiting vans while others hit the streets on foot, partying until 2.30am.

The following morning the couple and guests attended a brunch where Andy admitted his wedding to Rebecca felt like it had ‘gone on for weeks’.

The veteran comedian, 45, cut a casual figure in a white T-shirt, jeans and a baseball cap as he ventured into Old Mates Pub in Lower Manhattan, an Australian-themed pub, which he co-owns with Hugh Jackman, Hamish Blake and Mick Fanning. 

Andy told the Daily Mail his wedding was ’13 years in the making’ and it turned out ‘amazing’, with Harding taking his breath away on their special day.

‘She was perfectly Bec,’ he gushed, at one point clutching his cheek. 

Andy’s stunning bride soon exited the car in a flirty frock, hiding her eyes behind stylish sunglasses after the previous night’s celebrations. 

The statuesque brunette was all smiles, telling the Daily Mail she felt ‘great’ before turning the pub’s stoop into an impromptu photo opportunity.