Latest news with #NadeemSarwar
Wales Online
13-05-2025
- Wales Online
Couple deny defrauding top Welsh school out of millions of pounds
Couple deny defrauding top Welsh school out of millions of pounds Nadeem Sarwar and Nadeem Sarwar are accused of using money from the school to buy and renovate a property in a leafy Cardiff suburb Nadeem Sarwar, 49, pictured, and Yasmin Sarwar, 43, have been charged with multiple theft and fraud offences against Cardiff Sixth Form College (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE ) A husband and wife have denied defrauding Britain's top school for A-level results out of more than £5million from its charity fund. Yasmin Sarwar, 43, and husband Nadeem Sarwar, 49, have been charged with multiple theft and fraud offences against Cardiff Sixth Form College. Yasmin Sarwar became head of the college's charity and it rose to rank above illustrious Rugby and Marlborough schools with pupils travelling all over world to take top A-levels. Cardiff Court Court heard the couple allegedly used over £496,000 from the school to buy a property in a leafy suburb of the Welsh capital while also using more funds for refurnishing. They are also accused of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds into different bank accounts and possessing criminal property relating to £4,100,000 of student fees between 2012 and 2016. Don't miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here . At the time they were charged police said a probe into the college had been jointly carried out with the Charity Commission. Yasmin Sarwar, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to fraud, two counts of theft, two counts of fraudulent trading, possessing criminal property and three counts of transferring criminal property. Nadeem Sarwar, of Pentwyn, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to fraud, three counts of theft and five counts of possessing criminal property. Ragu Sivapalan, 40, from Penylan, Cardiff denied false accounting between 2013 and 2016. Article continues below Judge Tracey Lloyd Clarke set a trial date for September 1 next year. Nadeem Sarwar pictured leaving court (Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE ) Mother-of-one Yasmin Sarwar moved from Malaysia to Britain to study for her own A-levels when she was just 17. At the time her school was named the best in Britain for A-level results, she said: "I am a mother to the students. "I want to make a difference in their lives and them to then make a difference in other people's lives. "To create that difference in someone else's life you need to create that trust - and say I am here for you because I care." Article continues below After graduating with a Biochemistry degree from Cardiff University Sarwar started posting fliers offering her tutoring services for science classes to A-levels. Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here .
Daily Mail
13-05-2025
- Daily Mail
'Tiger mum' accused of defrauding Britain's top A-level private school out of £5m appears in court
A husband and wife have appeared in court accused of defrauding Britain's top school for A-level results out of more than £5million from its charity fund. Yasmin Sarwar, 43, from Cyncoed, opened Cardiff Sixth Form College in 2004 and claims to have 'helped over 800 students' gain admission into some of the UK's most illustrious universities. But there were said to have been irregularities in the school's finances between 2012 and 2016 - leading South Wales Police to launch an official investigation. It led to the self-confessed 'Tiger Mum' and her husband Nadeem Sarwar, 49, being charged with multiple theft and fraud offences against the school. Ms Sarwar became head of the college's charity - and it rose to rank above illustrious Rugby and Marlborough schools with pupils travelling all over world to take top A-levels. Cardiff Court Court heard the couple allegedly used over £496,000 from the school to buy a property in a leafy suburb of the Welsh capital while also using more funds for refurnishing. They are also accused of transferring hundreds of thousands of pounds into different bank accounts and possessing criminal property relating to £4,100,000 of student fees between 2012 and 2016. At the time they were charged, police said a probe into the college had been jointly carried out with the Charity Commission. Ragu Sivapalan, 40, from Penylan, Cardiff denied false accounting between 2013 and 2016. Ms Sarwar, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to fraud, two counts of theft, two counts of fraudulent trading, possessing criminal property and three counts of transferring criminal property. Mr Sarwar, of Pentwyn, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to fraud, three counts of theft and five counts of possessing criminal property. A third person - Ragu Sivapalan, 40, from Penylan, Cardiff - denied false accounting between 2013 and 2016. Judge Tracey Lloyd Clarke set a trial date for September 1 next year. Mother-of-one Ms Sarwar moved from Malaysia to Britain to study for her own A-levels when she was just 17. At the time her school was named the best in Britain for A-level results, she said: 'I am a mother to the students. 'I want to make a difference in their lives and them to then make a difference in other people's lives. 'To create that difference in someone else's life you need to create that trust - and say I am here for you because I care.' After graduating with a Biochemistry degree from Cardiff University Mrs Sarwar started posting fliers offering her tutoring services for science classes to A-levels. Ten years later she launched what would go on to be the UK's top performing fee-paying school where 95 per cent of pupils achieved A-A* in their A-levels last year. She later said parents see her as a 'mother figure' and 'somebody they can trust with their children'. Cardiff Sixth Form College has more than 300 students on its register and attracts children from all around the world, including Albania and China. Fees at the school were £15,000 per year for day pupils while international boarding students can pay up to £26,000 each year. A South Wales Police spokesperson said: 'Cardiff Sixth Form College has since changed hands. 'Since the sale of the College the charity changed its name to Cardiff Educational Endowment Trust - 1123262 and is now operating as a grant making charity.'
BBC News
13-05-2025
- BBC News
Cardiff Sixth Form College: Trial set in £5m fraud case
Three people have appeared in court charged with fraud and other offences in connection with an alleged £5m theft at a leading sixth form in Wales. Nadeem Sarwar, 48, from Pentwyn, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to nine fraud and theft offences totalling more than £5m while Yasmin Sarwar, from Cyncoed, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to all nine charges against Sivapalan, 39, from Penylan, pleaded not guilty to a charge of false accounting between January 2013 and July 2016. All three were directors or trustees at the independent Cardiff Sixth Form College. Their trial was set for 1 September 2026 and all three were released on bail.
Business Mayor
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Mayor
I tried Instagram Edits and it's a must-have app for creators
Table of Contents Table of Contents What is Edits all about? It's familiar and convenient Barely any learning curve A no-frills, all-fun video editing experience Instagram has launched a new video editing app called Edits. I won't mince words here. It's eerily similar to the CapCut, a popular video editing app by TikTok's parent company. Meta first announced the app earlier this year when CapCut was removed from app stores in the US to go with the brief TikTok shutdown. The Edits app is now globally available for download on Android and iOS devices. It is totally free, but Instagram chief Adam Mosseri recently hinted that down the road, some of the more advanced features might be locked behind a paywall. The biggest pain point of posting content on social media platforms is the number of technical hoops you need to go through before a video worth posting is ready. You start with a camera capture that is locally saved. Next, you export it to a video editing app, crop the timeline, and add the desired audio-visual effects. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends After going through those cross-app rituals, you post it on a social media platform like Instagram or TikTok. But social media is a fast-evolving game where speed is of the essence. You quickly need to hop on a trend. Whether it's a stitched video, or just using a viral audio clip, you can't risk being slow if algorithmic exposure is what you seek. But even if you are a casual user, the whole back-and-forth journey across different apps before you land on the final version of a video is quite exhausting. Edits offers a familiar Instagram-like experience that lets you record, edit, and directly post on Instagram. Or Facebook. Convenience, above all else. You can also export the video and share it on other platforms such as TikTok and YouTube. But there's a lot more to the convenience side here. In fact, it could double as a one-stop shop for all your social posting needs. From capture and editing to finding sound effects from Instagram, you have it all here. Read More NCC recommends two-factor authentication to secure WhatsApp Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends If you have ever shared a video or captured it directly in the Instagram app, you will feel right at home. The sign-up process automatically picks your Instagram login credentials for seamless onboarding. On the home page, you will find five core controls at the bottom. The first one is for ideation and inspiration. There's a Stickies section where you can quickly jot down content ideas and save them as sticky notes on the wall. It's a fantastic way of keeping your content ideas organized instead of putting them out as a locally stored note or reminder. Next to it is a Saved section where all the videos you have saved on Instagram appear in a scrolling feed. If you're someone who has created dedicated directories for videos of all kinds, you will find it all neatly arranged in the Collections section, just the way they are cataloged on Instagram. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Finally, you are greeted by the video section, which is like a feed in itself. Here, you can see Reels from accounts that you follow, or random videos that are making waves. With a single tap, you can add them as a sticky note for future reference, save them to a collection, or use the background audio clip. On the right edge is a built-in analytics dashboard, where you can check how videos are performing. It offers a graphical and a tab-like representation for engagement figures such as likes, comments, reposts, engagements, views, saves, and shares, among others. This is a neat convenience for creators, but it won't matter much to an average Instagram user who uses the platform for saving memories and connecting with friends. At the center of the home screen is a project button, where you begin your video creation journey, and next to it is a capture button. The former lets you pick a video or still saved on your phone, while the latter records clips straight into the Edits app. Read More Twitter safety exec quits after anti-trans video strife Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Coming to the editing part, you get a timeline at the bottom, followed by quick controls for audio-visual effects. You can import a local audio for overlay, or pick up from a wide selection of music clips trending on Instagram. You can pick an audio clip from within the self-explanatory 'For you,' 'Saved,' 'Trending,' and 'Original audio' feeds. Once you've selected a song or audio clip, you can specify which portion of it you want to use and overlay it over the desired clip section. Next, you get a wide range of text effect features, similar to those you would see on the Instagram Stories page. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends There's an option to narrate your own audio, add captions, and use the overlay feature, which comes in handy for recording fun reaction-style videos. You can split the timeline, if you want, while giving unique audio effects to each segment. Arranging, trimming, or expanding clip overlays atop the original video clips is extremely simple. Though it gets a bit crowded, you can safely handle four or five overlays above the base timeline without getting things too cramped on the screen. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Additionally, you can switch between the camera lenses available on your phone for zoom or ultrawide frame effects. I also love the added perk of picking between standard and HDR video format. If you are eyeing effect-heavy clips, the green screen feature in the camera mode really comes in handy. I quite like the AI-generated cutout effect, as it lets you seamlessly integrate video reactions and meme faces onto video clips without appearing too out of place. Then you have the Sound FX section, where you can pick from a wide range of reaction sound clips. You can manually add captions, but the auto-caption system also did a fine job with the few audio clips that I tested with background narration. The onboard AI can also turn static images into a short video. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends The cutout feature, powered by Meta AI, does a really good job of identifying the subject in a picture or clip that you are adding as an overlay. Finally, there's a sticker section, identical to the one you can already add to Instagram posts and stories. For exporting the final clip, you pick between HD (720p), 2K, and 4K resolutions. I was able to export a 17-second video in 4K resolution in 12 seconds, which is pretty good. If you are capturing directly from the camera, you get the same resolution and frame rate options. You can also choose between 24, 30, and 60fps frame rate options. Once the video is exported, it is saved to your local storage. You can, however, directly post it to Instagram or Facebook, depending on whether you are already logged in on the phone. Nadeem Sarwar / Digital Trends Overall, I found Edits to be a rather rewarding app. It could use a few more features, such as adding color-graded effects to videos captured from the camera, and direct integration of GIF or sticker overlays. Multi-camera capture from the front and rear lenses could also come in handy for vlogs, but you can always do so within a third-party app and import it to Edits. I also wish there were an option to record videos longer than ten minutes in the Edits app, but I believe that the workflow would get too heavy on the system resources to handle. What I liked the most about Edits, however, is the familiar UI design, easy controls, and the fun effects that define a Reels video. In its current shape, the Edits app is a pretty fantastic low-efforts option to capture and edit Instagram content. It's fast, fun, and deeply rooted in the Instagram ecosystem, so you are never going to run out of content ideas. For beginners, the Edits app is as good as it gets at landing their feet in the chaotically wonderful world of social videos.
