Fears for shopaholic head
A shopaholic former nun who milked up to £500,000 from the funds of a school to fund a lavish lifestyle has been rushed to hospital today after failing to turn up in court to be sentenced for theft and deception.
An ambulance arrived outside the home of former nun Colleen McCabe who failed to turn up at Southwark Crown Court this morning. McCabe was seen getting into the ambulance of her own accord in Sidcup, Kent.
McCabe's trial heard that her spending habits included a display of greed that "would have made Imelda Marcos proud", her love of footwear alone costing £7,000.
In a "gross betrayal" of trust the "shopaholic", 50-year-old former nun also splashed out on Gucci jewellery, fine restaurants, West End theatre "extravaganzas", trips on the Orient Express and sunshine holidays.
Massive amounts were frittered away on furniture, electrical goods, designer clothes and cosmetics, while gifts were lavished on relatives and friends.
A £270 Crystal Palace Football Club season ticket was even bought for a former college governor.
McCabe was head of the state-funded Roman Catholic St John Rigby College in West Wickham, south London from 1991 and was also on the governing body.
But years of her lavish credit card sprees left the school lurching from one financial crisis to another, with a library full of empty shelves and teachers having to clean their own classrooms.
At today's court hearing it emerged that McCabe, who was a nun for 15 years, had been due to meet her lawyers to discuss the case yesterday but instead booked herself into a hospital complaining of chest pains.
Late yesterday her lawyers discovered she had discharged herself from hospital.
Her barrister Paul Lewis QC told the court: "We were given the name and telephone number of the doctor who had care of Miss McCabe.
"We contacted the doctor this morning to ask for a prognosis and the information was that at some stage yesterday, after our consultation was due to
be held, Miss McCabe discharged herself from hospital before results of tests
were known.
"My instructing solicitors then made efforts to contact her by telephone, including at her home. We have been unable to make contact with her."
He said he was concerned about the results of a pre-sentence psychiatric report conducted on McCabe.
Prosecutor Andrew Wilcken told the court: "Our concern, and it must be shared by everybody, is that there is a risk of self-harm here and the sooner Miss McCabe is tracked down the better, not just in the interests of justice but clearly in her own interests as well."
The principal, of Longlands Park Crescent, Sidcup, had sought to blame an innocent co-defendant.
