An illegal immigrant stole almost £1.2 million of taxpayers’ money after being given a finance manager’s job at a West Midlands Council.
John Kaduwanema, aged 27, from Uganda, used the cash he diverted from public funds to create his own property empire.
Today he is in jail, starting a seven and a half year sentence for the fraud against Birmingham City Council. The judge recommended he is deported after serving half the sentence.
Embarrassed council bosses have launched an inquiry into how Kaduwanema was able to get a job, be promoted and then steal £1,171,847 destined for old people’s homes and other public services.
The council has pledged to discover how Kaduwanema, of Cannock, was given a job managing a team of 16 people in the payments section of the social care and health department. He had been at the council for four years before his thefts were uncovered.
Kaduwanema bought a home in Stag Road, Huntingdon, and properties in Brierley Hill and Liverpool. He also bought a Jaguar car, paid university tuition fees and put down a deposit on a flat in Birmingham.
His two-year-long fraud was uncovered by investigators just before he could siphon off more cash to complete the purchase of a half million home in Kinver. The innocent vendors were left paying a £150-a-day bridging loan when the deal collapsed.
Kaduwanema carried out the fraud between 2004 and February this year. He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of theft and asked for a further 14 to be taken into account. The amounts ranged from around £3,000 to £285,000.
Birmingham Crown Court heard Kaduwanema should never have been given the job because he only had an expired student visa. However, he had paid for a forged document to dupe the authority. He was only rumbled when suspicious Barclays bank queried a £285,000 transfer to his mother’s account in Uganda. It had been described as a VAT payment.
Recorder Alan Parker said taxpayers would be astonished to hear that he could steal so much cash. Council spokeswoman Janet Priestley said: “Our procedures have been updated and improved.”
By Irena Barker
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