A parent has pleaded guilty to stealing £28,000 from the PTA account at a primary school.

A Prae Wood Primary School parent, Dean White, 31, of Cassius Drive, St Albans, pleaded guilty to one count of theft and one count of fraud at St Albans Magistrates’ Court on Friday (2).

White stole the sum from the school’s PTA (PWSA) accounts between December 2015 and September this year.

He has been bailed and will appear for sentencing at St Albans Magistrates’ Court in January 2017.

A source told the Herts Advertiser that a letter had been sent out to parents. Part of it read: “The new PWSA Committee are in the process of setting up a new bank account and, thanks to the efforts behind the Christmas Fair and your generosity, have begun replenishing the account in order to be able to provide additional resources to the school.”

Jackie Stephenson, Headteacher at Prae Wood, responded to the Herts Advertiser’s request for comment. She said: “It wouldn’t be appropriate to comment on an ongoing court case, but I can assure parents and the community that we have robust procedures in place to identify accounting discrepancies.”