The 57-year-old part-time pastor was told by the High Court to pay £4.1million back to the Haberdashers’ Aske’s chain of academies more than a year ago. He has failed to do so, and it is feared most of the cash has been transferred to Nigeria.
The case, kept secret for almost two years, is believed to be Britain’s biggest ever education fraud. Although Kayode was arrested in October 2012, police have yet to charge him with any crime. Critics of academies – state schools which have control of their own finances – say the massive loss of cash calls that entire system into question.
Questions were also asked about whether Mr Gove – who lost his job as Education Secretary last week – took close enough interest in the case. Kayode went to work at Hatcham in 1997 and rose to become accounts manager for the whole chain. He was paid £57,000 a year, and told colleagues of his work as a pastor in the Christ Apostolic Church, South London, peppering his conversations with ‘praise the Lord’.
In October 2012 it emerged that a large sum of money was missing from the academies’ funds. Kayode’s assets and those of his wife Grace, who died aged 53 last year, were then frozen. It appeared that huge sums of school money had been paid into a bank account in Nigeria and a company called Samak, which is said to be run in Nigeria by Kayode’s second wife Yoni, although he denies any wedding has taken place.
However, the judge found in the trust’s favour last July and ordered Kayode and the estate of his late wife to pay back more than £4million plus interest. He remains at large and is not facing any charges, although he is due to speak to detectives again this week.
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