A headmistress and her bursar splashed out on Chri

A headmistress and her bursar splashed out on Christmas gifts and New Years celebrations from the pnds stlg 500,000 they plundered from college coffers, a court heard today (FRI).

During the festive period, the pair ‘hammered’ their school’s corporate Barcalycards in a ‘profligate spending of college money’ it is claimed.

Bursar Maureen Stapley, 41, blew more than pnds stlg 1,000 on booze and food on New Year’s Eve in a top-class restaurant with ‘total disregard’ for her duties, jurors heard.

And the principal at the 1,100 pupil Kent school Colleen McCabe, 50, spent pnds stlg 500 polishing her teeth at a private dental practice for the last night of 1997, it is alleged.

Prosecutor Anthony Wilcken told jurors at Southwark Crown Court: ‘What might fascinate or interest you is that on December 31 1997 the card was used twice at Monte Carlo restaurant in Sevenoaks, Kent.

‘On the first occasion pnds stlg 544 was spent and on the second pnds stlg 600.

‘We suggest that this was an entirely appropriate spending of public monies whether the revellers were pupils, teachers, admin staff, college governors or a combination of any or all of them.

‘That is not good house-keeping of college resources.

‘We go further and say it is profligate spending of college monies and a total disregard to Stapley’s responsibility.

‘This is a blatant example of how both McCabe and Stapley treated their corporate Barclaycards with which they had been issued.

‘They treated them as if the Barclaycards were their own property, without the formality the rest of us have to pay everything out of our own pocket for New Year’s Eve celebrations.

‘It must have been a fairly good watering hole because on December 19 pnds stlg 380.

60 was also spent at Monte Carlo.

‘

Mr Wilcken said Stapley, who helped control finances at the St John Rigby Roman Catholic College in West Wickham, also visited Debenhams, the Gadget Shop and Cromwell’s Madhouse in the days before Christmas.

‘In all this spending over the Christmas period, the cards are hammered.

‘It seems unlikely that this was spending that is properly attributable to the well-being of the college and its pupils,’ said the prosecutor.

He went on to tell jurors on the second day of the two-month trial that ‘shopaholic’ McCabe popped into her ‘favourite jewellers’ Simon Marks to spend pnds stlg 131 on Christmas Eve.

A week later, he said, McCabe forked out pnds stlg 500 at Sidcup Station Dental.

‘It is unlikely to have been a school pupil on December 31.

‘But even if it was a school pupil the public funds for spending on a college of education do not extend to what appears to be private dental treatment.

‘Virtually everything here you may think addresses Christmas spending.

‘

Mr Wilcken added that Stapley paid more than pnds stlg 1,500 for mail-order buys from high street favourites Past-Times.

The court has heard how the pair ‘milked’ the school’s coffers on a ‘massive scale’ for trips on the Orient Express, Gucci jewellery and designer clothes.

A former college governor was even given a season ticket to watch Crystal Palace games, it is alleged.

And more than pnds stlg 1,800 was spent on tickets to the Middle East, it is claimed.

When told accountants were on their way to inspect the books at the comprehensive, the pair immediately cancelled their cards, it is said.

They discovered McCabe and Stapley both held corporate Barclaycards in their own names which were being funded by the college’s main account.

The pair had held their jobs for nine years before they were forced to resign over the allegations of fraud.

Both defendants were on the college’s governing board and they were primarily in charge of the funds at the Comprehensive.

Colleen, of (36a) Longlands Park Crescent, Sidcup, Kent, denies 17 charges of theft between May 24 1995 and August 10 1999, totalling pnds stlg 74,266.

79.

She denies a further two charges of obtaining money transfers by deception between the same dates relating to pnds stlg 14,803.

96.

Stapley, of (14) Carlyle Road, Addiscombe, Surrey, denies seven charges of theft between January 24 1996 and July 25 1999, relating to pnds stlg 15,290.

09.

She denies a further six charges of obtaining money transfers by deception between the same dates relating to pnds stlg 12,803.

44.

The trial continues.

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