Adnan Cheikho, 55, charged over alleged NSW Education Department scam

A managing director of a shipping company has been charged over an alleged scam in which a Sydney high school principal is accused of defrauding the Education Department of $1.4m.

Rabieh Gharibeh, who was the alleged director of the group, was arrested in December.

A 55-year-old man accused of inflating $622,000 worth of invoices to the Education Department in an alleged scam involving a Guildford high school principal has been charged with corruption and fraud offences.

Police allege Villawood man Adnan Cheikho was the third man involved in mismanaging funds for maintenance works at Sir Joseph Banks High School in Revesby and Granville South Creative and Performing Arts High School in Guildford in 2021 and 2022.

Sir Joseph Banks High School principal Rabieh Gharibeh and his builder brother-in-law Ahmed Charchouh were charged with more than 60 charges each in December amid allegations they defrauded the department of nearly $1.4m through a school building scam.

On March 5, Cheikho was arrested at Bankstown Police Station and charged with dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and 26 counts of corruptly give/offer to agent benefit greater than $2000 and $5000.

In papers tendered to the court, police allege Cheikho, who is listed online as the managing director of ADS Shipping International, “corruptly gave” Gharibeh $352,262 of the fraudulently-obtained funds from the Education Department by aiding payment for the shipping company.

Former Sir Joseph Banks High School principal Rabieh Gharibeh.

The payments allegedly occurred between November 2021 and November 2022.

Police allege Gharibeh and Charchouh began offending in 2022, when Gharibeh was the principal of Granville South Creative and Performing Arts High School in Guildford, before continuing the alleged fraud when he took charge of Sir Joseph Banks the following year.

Gharibeh – the alleged director of the scheme – spent more than three months in jail after his arrest before being granted strict conditional bail in the NSW Supreme Court in March.

Financial crime squad detectives formed Strike Force Heidi in April last year to investigate the allegation Gharibeh was mismanaging funds intended for maintenance and building works after police received an anonymous letter.

Gharibeh and Charchouh remain before the courts.

The three men’s cases were heard at Parramatta Local Court on Thursday when they were adjourned to May 1.