Nigerian-Born Pastor In £4million Fraud

Nigerian-born Samuel Kayode, an accountant at a chain of academies championed by Michael Gove, is at the centre of a fraud investigation believed to be Britain’s biggest ever education fraud after £4million of school funds ended up in his personal accounts.

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 was spent on an extravagant lifestyle and buying a string of properties while the rest has been transferred to Nigeria.

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’.