Head teacher Colleen McCabe treated her parents to
Head teacher Colleen McCabe treated her parents to an all-expenses paid champagne trip on the Orient Express, jurors heard.
On the first of two trips, the head allegedly took bursar Maureen Stapley, the chair of governors, the school’s vice-principal and a member of the finance committee at pnds stlg 175 a head.
The group travelled from London to Winchester aboard the world-famous train and McCabe enjoyed it so much, she arranged for another trip with her parents in July 1999.
McCabe racked up a pnds stlg 1,575 bill for the two train journeys which she claimed were paid for by a ‘generous benefactor’ to the school.
But when quizzed by detectives Stapley said she thought her trip was a ‘corporate bonus.
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But prosecutor Anthony Wilcken said: ‘Whatever that may mean in the context of a publicly funded school, this is not a company of fat cat directors.
‘This is lavish expenditure for personal purchases.
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Stapley spent pnds stlg 757.
88 on the most expensive tickets to see the his musical Phantom of the Opera with a champagne reception for four adults and two kids, the court heard.
And she later paid more than pnds stlg 850 to watch Saturday Night Fever at the London Palladium, it is alleged.
‘If these purchases were for the benefit of the college and its pupils, it is little wonder that school days are the best days of your lives’ said Mr Wilcken.
He gave the court details of McCabe’s spending capabilities during a holiday to the Mediterranean isle of Gozo during the school’s summer break in 1998.
McCabe allegedly splashed out thousands during her trip, including visits to jewellers, restaurants and a shop called Lynne’s Lace.
Mr Wilcken claimed she also ‘made a little trip across the Channel’ that month and the day she flew back to the UK rushed straight to ‘high quality’ china shops, jewellers and department stores.
He went on: ‘It is the prosecution’s case that there are a great number of obvious occasions where each has used the Barclaycard for the purchase of goods and services which have absolutely northing to do with the legitimate interest of the college.
‘They had a lot to do with the establishment of a private life style that many would envy.
‘These purchases are but a very small selection from a great number of suspect transactions which the prosecution allege were part of a course of dishonest conduct by both defendants over a considerable period of time.
‘The principal had very wide spending powers at her disposal and she had the obligation to use these powers wisely and for the benefit of the college.
‘Stapley had the responsibility to ensure that Barclaycard spending was carefully monitored.
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The prosecutor told the court the pair had no records to back up their spending and added: ‘If there were such records, nothing would give us more pleasure than to look at them and modify the allegations if the circumstances warrant.
‘The point I make is this: when that document (Barclaycard statement) lands on the desk of Stapley, the bursar, how can she possibly not come to the conclusion that this has been a gross misuse of the college corporate Barclaycard?
‘The only possible explanation you may think, is that both have reached a tacit agreement that each should use the corporate Barclaycard for their own purposes
with no questions asked.
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He added that the pair had the potential to spend up to pnds stlg 600,000 on the cards before they were caught.
The trial continues.
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