Charity boss swindled £180k to fund life of luxury

 The former chief executive of an education charity, who used a company credit card to pay for his honeymoon and buy paintings at auction, has been jailed for six years.

Philip Bujak, 58, who earned up to £170,000 a year as chief executive from 2003 until 2014, swindled more than £180,000 from the Montessori organisation to fund his luxury lifestyle.

Bujak also used a company called Foris Fortuna to act as “agent” in the sale of Montessori’s £13 million St Nicholas prep school in Knightsbridge, London, netting himself and his friend, Adrian Dugdale, a total of around £150,000.

Judge Peter Testar said: “Right-thinking people will be astonished and appalled to discover what Mr Bujak did in taking advantage as the CEO.”

Bujak, of Haywards Heath, East Sussex, was convicted of five counts of fraud and jailed for six years. He was disqualified from being a company director for 10 years.

Dugdale, 46, of Leamington Road, Notting Hill, was convicted of one count of fraud and sentenced to 18 months, suspended for two years.