Tuesday 13th February

No comment – some justice at last

The following report was issue by the Press Association yesterday. We should all salute the integrity and courage of Dave Gibson, UCU branch secretary at Barnsley college, victimised by the jailed former Principal who has recovered from the health impact of his outrageous treatment. Dave was back in excellent form when I spoke to the Barnsley branch before Xmas. Well done Dave, some justice at last. Press Association Monday February 12, 2007 EducationGuardian.co.uk

Former lecturer jailed for defrauding college

A 69-year-old former college lecturer was jailed for 18 months today for his part in a fraud that cost a further education college hundreds of thousands of pounds.
A judge was told how Stuart Spacey, a grandfather, was a secondary figure in the fraud at Barnsley College who had been left to "face the music alone" due to the ill health of a former college principal, David Eade.

Mr Eade, 62, was the prime mover in the fraud, which involved a sum of between £500,000 and £940,000 being siphoned off from government funds through a labyrinth of companies, some of which were totally fictitious, Sheffield crown court heard.
But the case against the former principal was discontinued at an earlier hearing on medical grounds.

The court heard how Spacey made around £184,000 from the scam for himself and admitted being criminally involved in appropriating a total of £328,000.
It was told how the pair used sham companies and invented fake individuals over a seven-year period, between 1995 and 2002.

John Whitfield, prosecuting, said the fraud happened as the college was going through a period of substantial change.

Mr Eade led a highly successful drive to revitalise the college, which included using subcontracted services. One such firm was Progress Training, which specialised in providing training courses. But the court heard how this firm, which employed Spacey first as company secretary then as a consultant, was owned by Mr Eade who was therefore in a powerful position as both the issuer of contracts and the contractor.

Sentencing Spacey, of Badsworth, near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, Judge Patrick Robertshaw said: "The breach of trust involved in this fraud is serious, flagrant, calculated and protracted."
But he went on: "By no means were you the architect of this fraud.Never were you the principle player or main beneficiary. "

"Because of the serious ill health of your former co-accused and the discontinuance of the proceedings against him, you are now in the dock alone shouldering the inevitable penal consequences of this fraud."

The judge said: "The ethos of enterprise pervading further and higher education in the 1990s called for special skills and aptitudes. You and David Eade proved equal to the challenge.
"Much of what you achieved does you and him credit but that same culture also called for the highest standards of probity and integrity."

Spacey, who had worked at the college as an engineering lecturer before joining Progress, admitted conspiracy to defraud at a previous hearing.