Head jailed for £64,000 car fraud

The former headmaster of a leading prep school has been jailed for 10 months after admitting stealing £64,000 from parents to buy luxury cars including a Bentley, a Jaguar and a Lotus.

Barry Hoar, 56, the headteacher of the £3,750-a-term Barfield School in Surrey, initially said he had bought the cars to teach the children, who were all under 13, car maintenance.

But the school said there was no evidence they had been worked on by the pupils and Hoar later admitted his guilt.

Hoar persuaded five families to part with up to £19,500 each, offering them discounts on school fees for the cash payments. He gave the parents handwritten receipts but was caught when auditors found that there was no record of them in the school's accounts.

Guildford Crown Court was told that when he sold the cars for £44,000, the money went into his personal account.

He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of theft and was jailed for 10 months. Sentencing him, Judge Peter Moss said: "Your offending is inexplicable."