A couple who set up one of the country’s top private sixth-form colleges stole more than £5million from parents’ school fees, a court heard today.

Yasmin and husband Nadeem Sarwar treated the school as their own ‘piggy bank’, allegedly raiding its accounts to fund their ‘lavish lifestyle’.

A jury was told that Mr Sarwar, 50, has admitted stealing £5million from Cardiff Sixth Form College between February 2008 and October 2016.

But fellow director Mrs Sarwar, 48, denies nine theft and fraud charges between 2008 and 2016 totalling more than £5million.

The college, which was registered as a charity, started in 2004 after growing out of a group for tutoring A-level students run by self-styled ‘tiger mum’ Mrs Sarwar.

It has become one of the country’s top performing academic institutions and reached the top of the league tables for A-levels in 2010.

But the Sarwars had been milking the accounts at the school, which charges more than £30,000 per year for day pupils and more than £75,000 per year for boarders, to buy properties and fund their lifestyle, prosecutor Mark Cotter KC told Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court.

He said: ‘Yasmin Sarwar and her husband were paid handsomely for their roles in Cardiff Sixth Form College.

‘The defendant and her then husband treated the college as their own personal piggy bank.

'They raided the funds to fund their own lavish lifestyles.' 

Mr Cotter said the couple's assault on the school accounts was 'so relentless and widespread' that it left their accountant unable to produce proper audited accounts. 

The couple then hired Ragu Sivapalan, 41, as a 'new, less rigorous accountant' who took what they said at 'face value' to report false information, the court heard.

Mr Cotter said the college first welcomed fee-paying international students in 2009 and began successfully marketing internationally. 

He said: 'It became one of the top performing sixth form colleges in the country with international recognition.' 

The court heard the couple, originally from Malaysia, also recruited family members to sit as trustees on the school board. 

Mr Cotter said: 'Yasmin Sarwar was a wilful, intelligent and manipulative woman who was a willing participant in the fraudulent activity taking place in the college.' 

She even set up 'sham companies' in a bid to 'divert huge sums of money away from her husband after their relationship went sour, and to overseas,' he added.

'Yasmin Sarwar was taking money that did not belong to her from the charity and then tried to cover it up.'  

The court heard the Sarwars set up a board of trustees including respected teacher John Price-Thomas, his wife Carol and later their son Huw.

But four of the other trustees were related to them, including Mr Sarwar's sister, his cousins and Ms Sarwar's sister.

Mr Cotter said ‘financial decisions were not being made by the trustees’ but were instead being made by the Sarwars, ‘including the setting of their very substantial salaries.’

Mr Cotter said trustees Mr and Mrs Price-Thomas were ‘well-meaning’ but did not ‘fully grasp their responsibilities’ or hold the Sarwars to account.

The court heard the Sarwars announced they wanted to convert the college into a private business in 2013 and would no longer need trustees.

Mr Price-Thomas, his wife and son resigned to allow for the change from charitable status – but the private business was never set up and new trustees were recruited.

Mr Cotter said the Sarwars asked one of the school mothers, Nabeela Sheik, to be a trustee even though they were told she had ‘poor spoken English and could not read or write well in English either.’

Mr Cotter said investigators discovered that Ms Sarwar had transferred over £1.1million of college money to her mother's account in Malaysia, as well as buying a £1.1million house in Cardiff.

Accountant Sivapalan, of Penylan, Cardiff, has pleaded guilty to causing an auditor's report on a company's annual accounts to include misleading, false or deceptive information between January 2013 and July 2016. 

Nadeem Sarwar has admitted stealing £5million from Cardiff Sixth Form College between February 19, 2008 and October 31, 2016. 

Yasmin Sarwar, of Cyncoed, Cardiff, denies nine theft and fraud charges between 2008 and 2016 totalling more than £5million. 

The college had more than 300 students on its register and attracted teenagers from all around the world, including Albania and China.

It was sold to multinational firm Dukes Education in 2018 and the charges against the Sarwars and Mr Sivapalan predate the sale.

The trial, due to last ten weeks, continues.