Barry Hoar, who was head of the Barfield School in Farnham, near London, pleaded guilty this week in Guilford Crown Court, The Daily Telegraph reported. He admitted using the money donated for the car club, about 64,000 pounds or $128,000, to buy luxury cars, including a Bentley and a Jaguar.

Students in the club practiced maintenance on the cars, the prosecutor said. But Hoar drove them himself and then, when they were resold, kept the 44,000 pounds ($88,000) they fetched.

Hoar, who left the school when a police investigation began, now lives in Cornwall. He remains free on bail pending sentencing next month.

One of Barfield's best-known alumni was Mike Hawthorne, a Formula One racing driver who died in a car crash on the Guilford bypass at age 30 in 1959.