Thieving headmistress gets five years

A British headmistress who stole up to £500,000 (€715,000) from her school to fund a Champagne lifestyle was jailed for five years today.

Colleen McCabe, aged 51, was described by a judge as a manipulative liar and bully who splashed out on herself while her students suffered.

The former nun stood with her head bowed as she was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court in London watched by around 25 of her former pupils and staff.

Her trial had heard that as principal of the Catholic St John Rigby College in West Wickham, south-east London, she ran a “tyrannical” regime and led a life of luxury that “would have made Imelda Marcos proud”.

The unmarried teacher spent fortunes on jewellery, fine restaurants, sunshine holidays and Champagne trips on the Orient Express.

She even ran up a bill of more than €10,000 on shoes.

Judge Christopher Elwen told her: “Depriving, as you did, the children under your care of funds intended to be spent for their education and welfare was a gross breach of trust.

“Your performance marked you out as self-satisfied, manipulative and mendacious.

“You treated the college’s funds as your own property to be used for the benefit of yourself, your family and your ecclesiastical friends.”

McCabe’s excesses only stopped as she realised she was about to be discovered, he said.

She then concocted “a web of vicious deceit and falsehoods“, trying to blame her former friend and one-time college purser, Maureen Stapley, who was later cleared.

The judge said McCabe had told a “tissue of lies” to evade justice and showed “no hint of remorse”.

He said he took into account that she was suffering from a depressive illness and had a number of medical problems but rejected the plea of her barrister, Paul Lewis QC, for the sentence to be suspended.

As to how her dishonesty escaped the attention of the governors and auditors for so long, the judge said he could not comment, but he added: “Others may have their own views.”

McCabe’s regime saw as many as 26 teachers leave the school in a single year.

Many of them called her “Big Mac” and one said working at the school was “like Hell on Earth”.

Another said McCabe was “like Saddam Hussein in a skirt”.

But as the former principal shuffled from the dock today, wearing a white polka-dot blouse and three-quarter length grey wool wraparound, she looked a broken woman.

Slack-jawed, she spent several seconds looking at the packed public gallery in apparent bewilderment.

Former pupil Helen Jones, aged 21, who was in the gallery, said: “She was looking at us but I don’t think she was looking at anyone in particular. It was quite scary.

“I think she was in shock and her eyes were glazed.”

Outside court Det Sgt Richard Ward, of the Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad, said: “Looking at her spending it is selfishness and greed beyond all belief.

“Even now she shows no remorse, she can’t understand why she’s been convicted.

“She was very greedy and dishonest – all the way throughout the trial she never really had a defence and she tried to get out of everything and it’s been very hard to get her here to be sentenced today.”

He estimated McCabe had stolen “anything up to £500,000” during the 1990s and spent all of it, although she still had a detached house in Sidcup, south-east London.

He said: “I think she has frittered it away on her Champagne lifestyle for herself and her friends. There is nothing left.”

The officer said when the school came back under the control of the London Borough of Bromley in November 1999, after having been centrally funded, McCabe’s frauds were discovered immediately.

“For the previous six years it was audited by private firms,” he said.

“As to how they missed these frauds is for someone else to comment on.”

Two firms were involved in auditing the school during that time, he said.

McCabe had spent 15 years “under Orders” with the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul before deciding to become a teacher.

She joined St John Rigby as senior mistress in 1989 before being appointed head two years later.

She was convicted in July of 11 sample counts of theft and six of deception.

Her nine-week trial heard that two years into her headship she embraced crime on “a massive scale” and raided the annual school budget she largely controlled.

Many of her high street excesses were put on the school’s “corporate” Barclaycard.

Her long spree included plush seats and Champagne receptions for Saturday Night Fever and Phantom of the Opera.

She spent thousands in jewellery shops in Britain and abroad, including a gold and diamond bracelet for her mother.

Her less than nun-like purchases included a string bottomed bikini.

The spending spree left the school library virtually bookless, children were left to shiver in freezing, rat-infested classrooms and teachers had to do the cleaning themselves.

The college was so hard up it only had one crucifix.

Mr Lewis said his client, who still faces civil proceedings in the High Court, now cut a “sad and lonely figure”.

He said: “Quite what provoked her to begin committing offences of dishonesty is difficult to fathom.”

Former pupil Nick Ward, 17, said: “She stole our education but anything more than five years would have been excessive.”

But another ex-student Gawain Williams 17, said: “I think she should have got a year in jail for every year she was our principal.”

McCabe had been due to be sentenced on August 22 but failed to turn up after complaining of chest pains.

She was arrested the same day and had been in custody since.