article: Sian Harkin, 54, gave £30,000 to a builder using the school chequebook claiming the work was to be carried out at Llwyncelyn Primary School in Porth, when the work was actually carried out at her home . A headteacher who secretly tried to use a school chequebook to pay for thousands of pounds worth of work to be carried out at her family home has been jailed. Married mother-of-two Sian Harkin, 54, abused her position of authority by signing cheques totalling £30,000 to her builder claiming the work was to be carried out at Llwyncelyn Primary School in Porth, Wales. Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that not only did she use the chequebook of Llwyncelyn Primary when she was headteacher there, but also continued to use it when she moved schools. Harkin claimed the money was to be used to build a rain shelter for waiting parents at Llwyncelyn but the proposed work, which never materialised, was never ratified by governors. Instead, work was carried out at her home in Pontypridd, which she shares with her bank manager husband Anthony and their two children. Rachel Knight, prosecuting, said Harkin skipped procedures and instead issued cheques, even forging the deputy head's name in order to cash one in person. She told the court: 'Despite being seconded to a second school she continued to write cheques from the previous school. 'She took it upon herself to dip into school funds when there was no work done at the school. 'She abused her position of trust. She had significant financial responsibility but defrauded the school and thereby the community.' Ms Knight told the court that cowboy builder Lee Slocombe had carried out £80,000 worth of work at Harkin's home in Pontypridd over an 18-month period from November 2012. Labelled a fraudster and a conman who swindled thousands from victims, Slocombe was jailed for 43 months earlier this year for fraud. In total, Harkin signed six cheques to Slocombe over a six-month period. In August 2013, she gave him a cheque for £6,720, which she claimed in the school books was for a gazebo at Llwyncelyn School, but the cheque bounced as there was no second signatory. She signed another one in September of the same year for £5,000, which was cashed at Cash Converters, in Aberdare, by one of Slocombe's employees. Since there was no second signatory on that one either, staff phoned the school and spoke to Harkin. 'She said the cheque was genuine and that it could be drawn,' said Ms Knight. 'She tried to fob school staff off when they asked her about it saying it was nothing to do with the school.' In total, Harkin (left) signed six cheques to cowboy builder Lee Slocombe (right) totalling £30,000. She 'dabbled' in school funds while headteacher of the primary, a position she had held for nine years . Ms Knight said the bank refused to honour the cheque leaving Cash Converters out of pocket, forcing them to pursue a civil claim. Local authority auditors spoke to Harkin in the autumn and she claimed the cheque was a holding cheque for work to be done in October half-term. The auditor concluded it was an isolated incident and put it down to her naivety and inexperience. 'It was the first trigger in the local authority to indicate something was amiss,' said Ms Knight. In November 2013, Harkin moved to Coedpenmaen Primary School in Pontypridd and in December wrote a cheque for £5,000 for a shelter at Llwyncelyn. The bank refused to honour it but Slocombe took it to Abermarle Bond pawnbrokers in Cardiff, which cashed £2,500 on the basis he would return to get the rest. He never did. Harkin issued another £5,000 cheque later that month, which Slocombe partially cashed. She then issued a further three cheques on the same day on January 3 last year, one for £5,000, which was rejected by the bank and another, which was not presented. The last cheque, for £3,200, Harkin actually took into a Porth bank herself to cash after forging the signature of the deputy head, Susan Jones. 'The defendant was seen making that transaction on CCTV,' said Ms Knight. 'The cheques were signed during the school holidays because she knew there would be no likelihood of being caught by staff.' Slocombe carried out £80,000 worth of work at Harkin's home in Pontypridd (pictured), which she shares with her bank manager husband Anthony and their two children, over an 18-month period from November 2012 . Slocombe  was jailed earlier this year for 43 months for fraud for swindling money from dozens of victims. Pictured: Rubble and building materials remain outside Harkin's family property in Pontypridd, Wales . Harkin was called into a special meeting on January 21 last year and challenged about the irregularities. That led to a criminal investigation and Harkin admitted five counts of fraud and one each of theft and forgery. She told officers that she knew she should not have 'dabbled' in school funds. Marion Lewis, defending, said: 'It is a tragedy to see a woman of her calibre before the criminal court in such serious offences as these. She knows the effect her actions have had on the school and deeply regrets them. 'The effects of her wrongdoing have been devastating. A successful career that she dearly loved has been destroyed. She is thoroughly ashamed. 'She came under Lee Slocombe's spell. He charmed her. Her eyes were not opened until she was confronted with the fact that he had pleaded guilty to offences of fraud. 'She has found it very difficult to come to terms with her own gullibility and feels completely humiliated.' Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that not only did Harkin use the chequebook of Llwyncelyn Primary School (pictured) when she was headteacher there, but she also continued to use it when she moved schools . Ms Lewis asked for any sentence to be suspended but Judge Richard Twomlow refused her plea and jailed Harkin for 12 months. He told her: 'Not only were you responsible for writing the cheques but you were helping to try to get them cashed from the school account. 'You forged a cheque. Someone else was being dragged in as well as the school to this fraudulent project. 'There were no sufficient funds in the account and there was a risk that the cheques would be cashed making the school account go overdrawn. 'Lee Slocombe may be a fraudster and a plausible man but he was doing work at your house. You must have known that the last thing you were entitled to do was to use school funds to try to help him. 'This was a repeated and persistent breach of a high degree of trust. The school account never had much in it but that did not stop you from trying to access them with varying degrees of success through your own selfish needs because of your feelings for a man who told you he needed money. 'These were deliberate and calculated frauds. You were not duped.' Speaking after the case, her husband Anthony said: 'I want to stress that every penny of the money spent on our house came from my pocket and not from the school's funds. 'I am a bank manager and have proved to police that each pound and penny was met by us. 'What Slocombe did with the money from the school is a mystery. He is very plausible and a convicted fraudster. He said his wife had given Slocombe the money to build a shelter at the school. 'We feel very let down by Slocombe over the two-and-a-bit years he worked with us," he added. 'He has conned many, many people out of thousands of pounds. We trusted him as did many other people and were bitterly let down.'
highlights: Sian Harkin used school chequebook to pay for £30,000 work on her home .
  Harkin, 54, married to bank manager, now jailed for fraud, theft and forgery .
  Judge said she carried out a 'persistent breach of trust' over six months .
  Lee Slocombe who carried out work at Harkin's home earlier jailed for fraud .
prediction: Sian Harkin , 54, gave £ 30 , 000 to a builder 
   the work was to be carried out at Llwyncelyn Primary School in Porth, when the work was 
   carried out at her home . 
   headteacher 
   use a school chequebook 
   for thousands of 
   mother - of - two 
   abused her position of authority by 
   cheques 
   in 
   Tydfil Crown Court 
   she 
   she 
   but 
   it 
   Harkin claimed 
   used 
   rain shelter 
   and 
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  ' She 
   Lee Slocombe 
   £ 80 
   000 worth 
   fraud 
   jailed for 43 months 
   signed 
  