Nigerian Accountant Jailed for 9 years Over £4.1 million Education Fraud in UK

A Nigerian school accountant in the UK has been jailed for nine years after he was convicted of stealing about £4.1 million of school funds, DailyMail reports.

The vast sum of money is missing from the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust in South London.

Sam Kayode, 59 who is also a part-time pastor was said to have spent the money on his late wife, Grace, a “second wife”, Olubunmi Halima, 33, and two other female “partners”, Toyin Lawal, 50 and Yetunde Turtak.

A Woolwich Court last Friday sentence Kayode, who receives £57,000 a year, to 9 years in prison after he was found guilty of obtaining £150,000 by theft and £3.95 million by fraud.

He constantly looted the fund for 7 years until he was arrested in 2012, after a school cleaner stumbled on his paper work and made an anonymous call to the Chief Financial Officer.

He claimed to have moved the money to Nigeria where he has a £1 million empire with Halima but the Trust could not recover any asset from Nigeria. They were however able to recover only £800,000 from the total money he stole.

As well as spending money on his real wife Grace’s private health care until her death in 2013, he also signed documents showing he was making investments with Halima, and renting flats in Kent for ‘partners’, Toyin and Yetunde.

During trial, he tried to blame the theft on his late wife Grace and an office junior, saying that they conspired to smear him by transferring the money to his joint account in revenge for his adultery.

He denied having affairs with the other women, and said that he lied about marrying Halima. Toyin also denied they were lovers, saying that as her pastor, he paid for her rent for one month when she was short of cash.