Three people deny multimillion-pound fraud at Welsh sixth form college
Three people have pleaded not guilty in connection with a multimillion-pound fraud at a leading Welsh sixth form college.
Two men and a woman face a series of charges in connection with suspected financial irregularities at Cardiff Sixth Form College between 2012 and 2016.
Yasmin Anjum Sarwar, 43, from Cyncoed, Cardiff, Nadeem Sarwar, 48, from Pentwyn, Cardiff and Ragu Sivapalan, 39, from Penylan, Cardiff appeared before Cardiff Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.
Both Mr and Mrs Sarwar denied nine separate fraud and theft offences worth more than £5 million.
Sivapalan pleaded not guilty to false accounting between 2013 and 2016.
Wayne Mortimer, the head magistrate, sent the case to Cardiff Crown Court for a pre-trial hearing.
He said: 'The case between the three parties will be adjourned until May 6 at Cardiff Crown Court at 9am in the morning.'
All three were released on bail, with a condition that Mr and Mrs Sarwar must not contact each other.
The college, a fee-paying school for 16 to 18-year-olds, regularly records some of the highest A-level results in the country.
In 2016, it was the subject of the BBC documentary Britain's Brainiest School.
The college has changed ownership since the alleged fraud, with the charity that previously oversaw it now called the Cardiff Educational Endowment Trust, which operates as a grant making charity.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland for third straight night
By Conor Humphries BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -Public disorder broke out in different parts of Northern Ireland for the third successive night on Wednesday, as rioters attacked police with petrol bombs in the main flashpoint of Ballymena and a fire was started at a leisure centre in the town of Larne. Hundreds of masked rioters injured police and set homes and cars on fire in the town of Ballymena, 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Belfast, during the previous two nights in what police condemned as "racist thuggery." Riot police and armoured vans blocked roads in Ballymena on Wednesday evening as a crowd of hundreds watched on. About two dozen masked youths threw some rocks, fireworks and petrol bombs at police, a Reuters witness said. Police warned the crowd to disperse immediately and deployed water cannon against them for the second successive night. Riot police were also in Larne where masked youths smashed the leisure centre's windows before starting fires in the lobby, BBC footage showed. Swimming classes were taking place when bricks were thrown through the windows and staff had to barricade themselves in before running out the back door, a local Alliance Party lawmaker, Danny Donnelly, told the BBC. "There is absolutely no excuse for what has taken place in Larne and it must be condemned," Northern Ireland's Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, a Democratic Unionist Party representative for the area, told Cool FM radio. Police said youths were setting fires at a roundabout in the town of Newtownabbey, a flashpoint for sectarian violence that sporadically flares up in the British-run region 27 years after a peace deal largely ended three decades of bloodshed. Debris was also set alight at a barricade in Coleraine, the Belfast Telegraph reported. The violence initially erupted after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court on Monday, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court that they denied the charge, the BBC reported. Police are investigating the damaging of properties in Ballymena, which has a relatively large migrant population, as racially-motivated hate crimes. Two Filipino families told Reuters they fled their home in the town on Tuesday night after fearing for their safety when their car was set on fire outside the house. The British and Irish governments as well as local politicians have condemned the violence. (Rreporting by Conor Humphries and Amanda Ferguson; Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
What we know about Austria school shooting
Students were sitting in their classrooms at a secondary school in Graz when a 21-year-old Austrian man shot dead nine people, before killing himself. Twelve people were injured in Tuesday morning's violence, with one person dying hours later in hospital from their injuries. The incident was the deadliest mass shooting in Austria's recent history and the country has declared three days of mourning. Police are still investigating why the gunman - a former student who did not graduate - carried out the attack. Here is what we know so far. The first shot echoed through Dreierschützengasse secondary school, in the north-west of Graz, close to the main train station, at about 10:00 local time (09:00 BST), initially sparking confusion as to what was happening. "Was that a shot? That can't be true. Something must have fallen at the construction site across the street," a 17-year-old student, identified as F, said to his friends, according to the Kleine Zeitung newspaper. One student told Die Presse that when shots rang out, his teacher immediately locked the classroom. Another student told the paper that at first she thought the shots were firecrackers, but "then there was screaming, and we ran". Local resident Astrid, who lives in a building next to the school, told the BBC she heard 30 or 40 shots. Her husband Franz called the police. "We saw one pupil at the window - it looked like he was getting ready to jump out... but then he went back inside," Franz said. The couple later saw the students had "got out of the school on the ground floor, from the other side" where they "gathered on the street", Franz said. The shooter took his own life in a school bathroom shortly after the gun attack, the authorities said. The first emergency calls reached police at exactly 10:00, with the first patrol arriving on scene at 10:06, police said on Wednesday. Shortly after, a Cobra tactical unit, which handles attacks and hostage situations, and other specialist units arrived. Police brought the situation under control in 17 minutes. More than 300 police in total were deployed to the school. Nine students - six girls and three boys - between the ages of 14 and 17 were killed in the shooting, police said. A teacher died of her injuries in hospital. All were Austrian citizens, except for one Polish citizen. The victims have not yet been named by the authorities. One woman, Tores, told BBC News in Graz's main square on Wednesday that she knew one of the boys who had died. He was 17. "I've know this family for a long time, including the son of the family, and knew that he attended that school. I rang immediately, to ask if everything is OK. Then they let me know at midday, that the boy was one of those slaughtered," she said. "What happened yesterday is completely awful, the whole of Austria is in mourning," she said. "This is terrible for the whole of Austria." The other eleven injured people are currently out of danger, police said on Wednesday. They are between the ages of 15 and 26. Eight are from Austria, two from Romania and one from Iran. The 21-year-old, who has not yet been named, was an Austrian man from the wider Graz region who acted alone, police said. He lived with his single mother, who is also Austrian, in the Graz-Umgebung district, police said in a press release on Wednesday. His father, who is originally from Armenia, had not lived in the same household since their separation. He was a former Dreierschützengasse student who did not graduate from the school, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told a news conference on Tuesday. In a statement on Wednesday, police said they found a "farewell letter", "farewell video", a non-functional pipe bomb and apparently abandoned plans for a bomb attack during a search of the suspect's home. He legally owned the pistol and shotgun used in the attack, police added. Police said they are still investigating a possible motive. Austria has one of the most heavily armed civilian populations in Europe, with an estimated 30 firearms per 100 persons, according to the Small Arms Survey, an independent research project. Machine guns and pump action guns are banned, while revolvers, pistols and semi-automatic weapons are allowed only with official authorisation. Rifles and shotguns are permitted with a firearms licence or a valid hunting licence, or for members of traditional shooting clubs. School shootings are rare. There have been a few incidents over the years that have involved far fewer casualties: In 2018, a 19-year-old was shot by another youth in Mistelbach, north of Vienna In 2012 in St Pölten, a pupil was shot dead by his father In 1997, in Zöbern, a 15-year-old killed a teacher and seriously injured another In 1993, a 13-year-old boy in Hausleiten seriously injured the head teacher and then killed himself Austria's most violent gun attack in recent years took place in the heart of Vienna in November 2020. Four people were killed and 22 injured when a convicted jihadist ran through the centre of the city opening fire, before he was eventually shot by police. Fanny Gasser, a journalist for the Austrian daily newspaper Kronen Zeitung, told BBC News the school was likely unprepared for the possibility of an attack. "We are not living in America, we are living in Austria, which seems like a very safe space." Austrians hold vigil to mourn 10 victims of school shooting School shooting leaves Austria's second city in shock and grief
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
Muriel McKay's family offer £1m reward to find body
The family of Muriel McKay – who was held hostage and murdered 56 years ago – have offered a £1m reward for information that leads to the discovery of her remains. Mrs McKay's grandson, Mark Dyer, told the BBC the family was inspired by the Mel Gibson movie Ransom to make a last-ditch attempt to solve the mystery. Mrs McKay's body has not been found since she was kidnapped in 1969, taken to a farm in Hertfordshire and killed. Police searched the farm at the time, in 2022 and again in 2024, but Mr Dyer said the family hoped the reward "could provide a new way forward". He said the £1m ($1.35m), which had been supplied by a "benefactor", would not be paid "if finding Muriel involves any illegal act whatsoever". "It's a long shot, but it's a big statement and I think after 55 years – we have been trying to get her back ever since," he added. The reward mirrors the original ransom demand of £1m to return Mrs McKay to her family. She had been mistaken for the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and abducted from her London home on 29 December 1969. Her husband, Alick McKay – Murdoch's deputy - returned home to find her missing. Later that evening, he received a phone call. He was told: "This is Mafia M3. "We're from America, we have your wife. It will cost you a million pounds to get her back. "You'd better get it by Wednesday, or we will kill her." The caller was Nizamodeen Hosein, who was convicted of Mrs McKay's kidnap and murder along with his brother, Arthur. Arthur died in prison. Nizamodeen Hosein later spoke to the McKay family, explaining where he had buried her. The Metropolitan Police interviewed Hosein in 2024 and - despite scepticism about his account - carried out a third dig at Stocking Farm, near Bishop's Stortford. No human remains were found. Mr Dyer said his mother Dianne – Muriel's daughter – had seen the film Ransom and "thought it was an interesting idea to turn it on its head" by offering the same payment that had been demanded in ransom. "We're offering it to anybody who can lead us directly to recovering Muriel's remains. "Someone who feels a flicker of recognition. It could be an old memory. "You may have been living with this for 55 years, you may have been suffering with that knowledge. "There are people perhaps in Trinidad or in prison who were told things over the years. "You could have the courage to rewrite history and give a family that peace that's been denied," he said. Follow Beds, Herts and Bucks news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. No human remains found in search for Muriel McKay Muriel McKay killer 'willing' to show where body is Muriel McKay's children make direct plea to Met chief Metropolitan Police
