School manager Susan Harmon, 55, stole more than £80,000 from Great Harwood Primary School between 2016 and 2023 – she enjoyed holidays across the world while the school’s buildings became ‘dilapidated’
A school manager has been jailed after stealing more than £80,000 from a primary school.
Great Harwood Primary School in Blackburn, Lancs, was unable to afford maintenance and slowly became “dilapidated” while Susan Harmon, 55, enjoyed holidays in New York, Las Vegas, and Portugal. She pilfered a total £82,769.08 from the school between 2016 and 2023.
During that time the school couldn’t afford playground equipment and reading material. A lack of funds to fix the school’s CCTV systems and gates also led to a child leaving unsupervised.
The fraud was exposed when a new headteacher started in September following the previous head’s retirement. Harmon was sentenced to three years imprisonment at Burnley Crown Court on Wednesday after admitting charges of fraud by abuse of position and concealing, disguising, converting, transferring, or removing criminal property.
Judge Daniel Prowse, sentencing, said: “Your actions in depriving the school had a severe impact and has had far-reaching consequences. There was an impact on school safety.
“The fabric of the building was unable to be kept, and the building became dilapidated because essential maintenance was unable to take place. Faced with a severe shortage of funds, the headteacher faced the agonising decision of having to reduce staff hours.
“One staff member took the decision to resign to protect the jobs and hours of their colleagues, an unnecessary situation had you not been defrauding the school. Two members of staff had to get second jobs in order to make ends meet. Every aspect of that impact was felt most acutely by the children, their school was collapsing around them.”
New head John McKenna found out about the fraud after questioning missing insurance claim payments. He discovered £30,000 in insurance claims for staff absences had been paid into the school’s ‘unofficial’ bank account rather than its ‘official’ one.
Harmon still had control of the unofficial account, which was used for school events and breakfast clubs, despite having left her role as the school’s bursar. She had claimed the account was closed.
Lancashire County Council was then asked to investigate, finding Harmon had withdrawn more than £80,000 of school money into her personal accounts. She had told parents and institutions to pay into the unofficial account rather than the official one. Among other payments, five universities put more than £12,000 into the account for student teacher placements.
In a victim statement read out in court, headteacher Mr McKenna said Harmon’s actions had “significant and far-reaching implications on the school and its financial reputation”. He said the fraud had “deprived children of a range of opportunities” and there were “years of making do with what’s available or raising money from parents”.
Defence lawyer Rachel Woods said the money had been used to help pay the rent of a family member so they would not lose their house. She said holidays to destinations including Las Vegas, New York, and Portugal, and renovations to Harmon’s kitchen, were paid for out of personal loans rather than with the stolen funds.
A Lancashire County Council spokesman said: “As a result of our professional investigation, the offender in this case was identified and successfully prosecuted. The investigation team has also successfully recovered the loss in full, ensuring school funding for children’s education is protected.”
