School finance manager guilty of £35k fraud

BOUGHT GADGETS AND CLOTHES AND KEPT CHARITY DAY MONEY

- By SUE KIRBY

A "DEVOUT Christian" defrauded a Teesside primary school of more than £35,000 — splashing cash on items such as laptops, Apple watches and AirPods.

Teesside Crown Court heard Andrew Barber was a finance manager at Whitehouse Primary School, in Stockton, with access to all the school accounts.

And while the 38-year-old was consoling staff members who were being made redundant on financial grounds, he was spending school funds, including more than £20,000 with Amazon.

Saba Shan, prosecuting, told the court Barber's fraudulent activities started in 2019 and included not banking cash from school charity days, spending school money with Amazon, Argos and Currys and withdrawing cash 11 times from ATMs in Billingham, Stockton and Hartlepool.

She said it was withdrawing the money that alerted another member of staff in 2023, who thought it strange as the Dunelm Road School operates a cashless system. An investigation uncovered the extent of the fraud, believed to total around £35,500.

Ms Shan said Barber, a father-of-four from Kesteven Road, Fens, Hartlepool, was in charge of banking money from school charity events, often raising up to £500, but added: "There are no records of charity money being banked."