College among schools swindled out of $1.5m
Fraud in schools has swallowed up at least $1.5 million of taxpayer funding over the past three years, according to the Ministry of Education.
The figure is likely to be much higher, because it includes only those cases investigated by the ministry. School boards are not obliged to seek the ministry’s help if they choose not to.
Upper Hutt College, north of Wellington, was one of seven schools and early childcare centres where the ministry helped to investigate fraud since 2014, and its principal said it was still feeling the impact of the crime.
Former executive officer Donald Hancox fleeced $375,000 from the school. He was jailed for two years and three months in July last year, and is understood to be eligible for parole next month.
Principal Judith Taylor said lasat week the school had, so far, been unable to recoup any of the money, but was in discussions with police and its insurers over the issue.
‘‘One can only wonder how much better this school would be if we had had the benefit of both the stolen money and stolen time,’’ she said. ‘‘We certainly have a greater awareness of where and how fraudulent activity can occur now. The school has undergone a thorough review of its process and systems with advice and guidance ... we have improved the financial literacy of the board [of trustees] and management, developing a greater understanding of what to look for and what questions to ask.’’
However, some recent highprofile school fraud cases were not investigated by the ministry. It offered to assist in the case of Tessa Grant, who last year admitted stealing $795,000 from Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. In a statement released this week, the ministry said its services were not required, as it was ‘‘a proprietor who was defrauded – not the board of trustees’’.
Upper Hutt College was the second-largest fraud case investigated by the ministry since 2014. The only one to eclipse it involved Noah’s Ark Centres early childhood director Harriet Stevenson. She was extradited from Australia in 2015 after being caught falsifying funding claims made to the ministry worth $500,000, and was sentenced to nine months’ home detention and 150 hours of community service.