SAN FRANCISCO, June 27, (THEWILL) – A Nigerian Samuel Kayode, has been sentenced to nine years in prison by the Woolwich Crown Court in South London.
Kayode, an accountant and part-time pastor was sentenced for defrauding Haberdashers’ Aske’s state schools in the UK to the tune of £4.1million with only £800, 000 recovered from him.
According to British prosecutor, James Thacker, the part-time pastor, who earned £57, 000 per annum, lavished the stolen money on four women, his wife, Grace; a second ‘wife’ in Nigeria, Olubunmi Halima; and two other women in the UK.
He also bought luxury cars including a Mercedes, an Audi TT sports car and an Infiniti car with the money, wearing £500 Gucci shoes and carrying a Louis Vuitton briefcase.
Thacker explained to the court how the convict looted the accounts of Haberdashers, for seven years, and was too arrogant to admit his guilt even after he was caught red-handed in 2012.
According to the prosecutor, Kayode started using the BACS money transfer system (a system in the UK for making payments directly from one bank account to another) in 2006, to put “tens of thousands at a time directly into a joint account held with wife Grace. He then spent up to £98,000 a month.
“Apart from spending money on his wife’s health care until her death in 2013, Kayode also signed documents showing he was making investments with Halima, and renting flats in Kent for ‘partners’ Toyin Lawal and Yetunde Turtak.”
He was exposed when a school cleaner stumbled across some of Kayode’s documents. The cleaner was said to make an anonymous call to the schools’ Chief Finance Officer, Yvonne Smithers.
Kayode, the father of four from Ilford, East London, however blamed the crime on his late wife and a junior colleague, saying that they conspired to tarnish his image by transferring the money to his account in revenge for his adultery.
