A HEADTEACHER who overpaid herself £130,000 including £300 an hour for ‘overtime’ has been banned from teaching.

Ludiya Besisira was head of Mission Grove Primary School in Walthamstow from 2001, until 2010 when she suddenly stepped aside.

During her time with the school she was also covering the headteacher role at Sybourn Primary School in Walthamstow.

Five years after her departure a teacher disciplinary hearing has found that the 64-year-old intimidated staff and authorised massive overpayments to herself, as well as splashing school cash on huge projects at the school, without authorisation.

During her time as head she also employed an illegal immigrant.

Besisra faced thirteen charges of failing follow financial procedures and bullying at a disciplinary hearing which heard it was ‘her way or no way’.

The report released this week revealed the depth of Besisra’s deception while at the helm of the two schools.

Ms Besisra started at Mission Grove in Walthamstow in 2001 on a £50,000 salary.

But from 2005 she began bumping up her own pay by writing letters and having them signed by the chair of governors, whom she convinced she had the right to do it.

On December 16 2005, the governor wrote to EduAction, a private HR company for the borough, authorising a further salary increase for Ms Besisira to £61,000.

In July 2006, she was asked to take over as the executive headteacher at Sybourn Junior School, too.

Over the next three years, a succession of unauthorised pay increases were made, none of which were approved by the full governing board.

Letters were regularly drafted by Ms Besisira and placed before the chair for his signature “without him having any real understanding or knowledge of what he was signing” the panel found.

Ms Besisira denied any wrongdoing.

But during her seven terms at Sybourn, a total of £135,700.00 was paid over and above her substantive salary.

She also drafted an agreement, signed by the chair, stating Sybourn would pay the equivalent of 15 hours per week at £500.00 per day for her services, with three quarters of that charge to be paid to her and one quarter to be paid to Mission Grove.

Any work carried out during weekends or after school hours would be paid at £300.00 per hour.

The Synbourn governors, and those at Mission Grove each had no idea about the extra payments.

Besisra also signed huge finance agreements for the supply of equipment.

The panel found that this was to avoid the claw back provisions if the school’s budget had not been spent by the end of the financial year in 2008.

Speaking about her ‘bullying’ one witness said he received a threatening message from the head after he questioned her in a meeting.

It said: “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you”

The witness said: “You had to do what she said. If you argued with her it would be like arguing with a brick wall. She would make your life very difficult.”

Another said: “The way that the school’s finance work is that Ludiya controlled everything. All outside correspondence and information first had to be directed to her.

“In July 2007, with considerable support from the council, the school opened a Children’s Centre to include a new building and expansion of existing school buildings.

A borough accountant was allocated to the project and a start-up grant of £79,000 was paid. Any underspend on the centre’s budget had to be repaid to the borough and Besisira would apportion excessive charges to the centre’s budget.

The head also instructed staff to bank income from day care fees to the School Fund instead of the School’s Delegated Budget, in January 2009

The School Fund was a voluntary fund intended entirely for the direct benefit of pupils and this move allowed her to misrepresent the level of the school’s income.

Besisra was found not guilty of intending to mislead people by not putting a petty cash system in place.

She was also found not guilty of intentionally employing an illegal immigrant and the panel found she had a ‘good history’.

In their final decision the panel stated:“Ms Besisira’s actions represented a serious departure from the personal and professional conduct elements of the Teachers’ Standards.

“Indeed, the panel had found that there had been a pattern of dishonesty over a significant period of time, relating to large sums of money for her own personal gain.

“Ms Besisira had little regard for, and deliberately circumvented, financial regulations and policies of which she was aware to achieve her aims. This was designed not only to ensure that she benefited financially herself but also to redirect funds inappropriately.

“There was no evidence to suggest that Ms Besisira had any insight into her failings nor had she expressed any remorse for what had taken place.”