Primary school's income plummeted to £4,000 in alleged fraud
A school's income rocketed after its headteacher and secretary – both accused of plundering funds – were suspended, a jury heard.
Revenue had dropped to a low of £3,816 in headteacher Michelle Hollingsworth's last year at Smethwick's Annie Lennard Primary – but soared to £72,626 in the year after her departure, when another staff member took over the financial reins, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Hollingsworth, 55, and secretary Deborah Jones, 57, systematically siphoned cash from school funds over five years by making out fake purchase orders and misusing the school cheque book, Mr Mark Jackson, prosecuting on behalf Sandwell Council, has told the jury.
Denise Goldby-Timmis told how the pair had organised a trip for pupils and their families to Drayton Manor Park, which parents paid for themselves – yet no record of the payments appeared in the school's financial records.
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She herself paid £50 cash for a family ticket, with the total cost of the outing coming to £2,891, but when she became school administrator in the wake of the pair's suspension, there was no mention of the trip in the school's financial records, she told the court.
Mrs Goldby-Timmis told how Hollingsworth had bought six pairs of Lelli Kelly children's designer shoes for her two daughters after one of the girls had had a dream about receiving a pair.
She said Hollingsworth, Jones and a teacher not involved in the alleged fraud had also bought the girls dressing tables as Christmas gifts.
Hollingsworth became headteacher of Annie Lennard Primary, the school where she had worked for years, in 2006 but under her leadership income started to plummet, the jury heard.
By 2012–13, the school's annual revenue had fallen to £10,083, dropping to £9,778 the next year and still further, to just £3,816, in 2014–15. Following Hollingsworth and Jones' suspension in October 2015, income rose sharply, totalling £72,626 in 2016–17 and £65,644 the following year.
Mrs Goldby-Timmis said that prior to her taking on the role, all cash was lumped together in one tin instead of being categorised in different income streams such as catering, school trips and uniforms, and there were no written financial records.
She was present, the court heard, when Hollingsworth told staff that there was no money left in the school budget and publicly blamed the situation on a teacher for hiring a support worker for a child in her class who had special needs.
Jones, of Barrs Road, Cradley Heath, admits conspiring with the headteacher to defraud Sandwell Council and the school but denies all alleged frauds involving other people.
Hollingsworth, of Hatherton Park, Cannock, denies the conspiracy and all the other charges brought against her.
They are said to have been the main offenders in the conspiracy which supposedly included several other people, five of whom are in the dock with them and deny any involvement. The case continues.
