No prizes for guessing why the Council employed this drug-dealing thief in the first place.

Croydon Advertiser:

A former council worker with previous for drug possession and deception tried to steal £60 worth of cosmetics from the Whitgift Centre “because the queue was too long”.

Emile Obidike, 40, pleaded guilty at Croydon Magistrates’ Court on Monday to the attempted theft of items worth £63.98 from Boots.

Obidike, of Violet Lane, South Croydon, was caught by store investigators on March 14 this year.

The court heard how he had put the cosmetics into a bag and made his way to the exit but was stopped by security.

He initially maintained he was not trying to steal the items and pointed to the fact that he had not left the store yet.

However, after police were called and Obidike was detained by security, he admitted trying to steal the goods but said it was because the queue at the tills was too long.

Obidike was jailed in 2011 relating to offences committed while he was employed as a children’s information services manager for Newham Council, in east London.

He deceived fellow workers and lied about his qualifications to secure his job at Newham. He also had a false passport.

At his address, police had found a stash of valuable goods he had paid for with the proceeds of his crime, including an iPod Touch and a Gucci watch, while he was said to have earned £250,000 during his time at Newham between 2004 and 2010.

Obidike was sentenced to eight months for faking his qualifications, two charges of deceiving his colleagues, and possession of forged documents.

The court was told on Monday that he had been working at Croydon Council despite being given a conditional discharge for possession of class A drugs, including ketamine and MDMA, in January this year.

However, Croydon Council denied any record of having employed Obidike when asked by the Advertiser this week.

His LinkedIn page states that he was a project manager at consulting firm Continental Investment Partners in Croydon.

Obidike was ordered to pay a £100 fine and costs of £150 for the shoplifting offence.

An accountant at a chain of academies championed by Michael Gove is at the centre of a fraud investigation after £4million of school funds ended up in his personal accounts.

Nigerian-born Samuel Kayode is said to have spent much of the cash on an extravagant lifestyle and buying a string of properties.

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.

The vast sum of money is missing from the Haberdashers’ Aske’s Federation Trust in South London.

It is named after 17th century silk merchant Robert Aske who left much of his wealth to create an educational charity fund run by the Worshipful Company of Haberdashers.

The Haberdashers’ Aske’s public schools for boys and girls in Hertfordshire were founded with his money.

Three Haberdashers’ Aske’s state secondaries in South-East London – Hatcham College, Knight’s Academy and Crayford Academy – are run by the trust as a separate charitable wing funded by Mr Aske’s endowment. They were often referred to by Mr Gove in speeches.

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