A TEENAGER helped police by using her iPod to catch a thieving school cleaner.

The 15-year-old Newstead Wood School pupil hid in a cupboard and used her iPod to video her classroom while Olajumoke Ajadi was cleaning.

From her hidden location the girl caught Ajadi on film taking £100 from a handbag at the girls’ school in Avebury Road, Orpington.

When Ajadi was arrested at the school £115 was found on her and a victim came forward to say she had just had £15 stolen.

The 28-year-old initially denied two counts of theft but admitted the charges when faced with the video evidence.

Ajadi, of Arthur Grove, Woolwich, was given a 12-month community order at Bromley Magistrates’ Court requiring her to do 60 hours of unpaid work.

Her arrest came after Newstead Wood’s police schools officer was alerted by the school to a series of 35 thefts from pupils and staff over previous months in which a total of £585.85 was stolen.

These began around the time Ajadi started at the school in January this year but there was insufficient evidence for any prosecutions to be brought in the other cases.

Detective Inspector Jane Corrigan, from Bromley CID, said: "Working in conjunction with the school and pupils, police found irrefutable evidence of theft against Ajadi.

“This shameful act was an abuse of the position of trust that she had been placed in at the school and a betrayal of the whole school community."