Nursery World - Ex-Montessori charity boss jailed for fraud

Philip Bujak, former chief executive of Montessori St Nicholas, has been jailed for six years.

The former CEO, who was paid a salary of £170,000 a year, defrauded the charity out of £180,000.

Mr Bujak was chief executive of the Montessori St Nicholas charity from 2003 until mid-2014 and founded the Montessori Schools Association.

He stole money from the charity by using the company credit card to pay for personal stays in hotels and on one occasion to pay for a facial.

Mr Bujak’s most lucrative scam involved the sale of Montessori St Nicholas’s Prep School of 23-24 Princes Gate, a £13m property in South Kensington.

As part of the deal, Mr Bujak agreed with a company called Foris Fortuna, that acted as the ‘agent’ for the sale, that he would receive a secret payment of £100,000.

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