Special report: School spent years chasing former principal – and thousands of dollars

A low-decile South Auckland primary school pursued its retiring principal for about $70,000 in personal expenses allegedly charged to the school. The disputed funds included a work pickup truck the principal sold on to his
wife after retirement that is still parked at his $3.3 million Remuera home. A four-year saga spanning a police investigation without charge and a Teaching Council censure of him is still yet unresolved, Tom Dillane reports.

It took one month in the job for principal Paul Crowhurst to suspect there were some “anomalies” in the 26-year career of his predecessor.

It was a short time to uncover something brewing for that long.

But no one else had seemed to notice, or at least wanted to tell.

Graeme Gilbert had been one of a handful of male South Auckland primary school principals who began their roles during the Tomorrow’s Schools education reforms of the early 90s.

The profound structural reset disbanded Education Department Boards as of October 1, 1989, and ushered in 17,000 local school trustees. At its heart, the reforms facilitated greater independence for schools and a flexibility that included approval of finances by the school boards of trustees.

The “tight group” of contemporary South Auckland principals in neighbouring schools around Gilbert had remained mates across the decades.

From the outside, the tenure of the well-liked Gilbert had galvanised the low-decile Papatoetoe East Primary into a destination where staff and students “wanted to be” and had few obvious hitches.

He was perhaps not a hands-on educator who would integrate himself into the minutiae of the teaching day or the students’ often gritty lives.

It was noted in the first week of Crowhurst’s tenure in July 2018 that staff weren’t used to having a principal present at school grounds so often.

But no one could deny Gilbert was an enthusiastic figurehead, who kept the culture of the school community, its facilities and morale all in good shape.

His career at Papatoetoe East Primary ended with his retirement in May 2018, and he was farewelled, at Gilbert’s own request, by a “low-key” assembly with special tributes from the students. The New Zealand String Quartet also arrived to play one of his favourite songs.

Afterwards, Gilbert posed proudly in the schoolyard draped in a korowai emblazoned with feathers in the school colours of red, yellow and blue.

Photos of him wearing it – with one outstretched arm opening the korowai to reveal charmingly unconventional interior patchwork – can be found on the Papatoetoe East Primary Facebook page.

A heartfelt message accompanies it.

“This has been made by the students, each of them designing a feather, and was presented to him yesterday at our assembly. Mr Gilbert is going to allow us to have this on display in our library for the next week and we would like to invite you all to come in and have a look.”

Gilbert drove away from the school for the last time as principal that day in a $50,000-plus Nissan Navara pickup truck that was the school vehicle.

It is still, as it always was of an evening during the final years of Gilbert’s tenure at Papatoetoe East Primary, parked in the driveway of his $3.3 million Remuera home.

It was the first jarring detail that drew new principal Crowhurst into a search for clarity a few months later.

Not long after, the school’s board of trustees entered into legal mediation in which they requested Gilbert to repay about $70,000 in expenses. This is what they could calculate within the six-year civil law statute of limitations for which Gilbert could be charged before their 2018 discovery.

The ensuing four-year ordeal has encompassed a police investigation without charge, a Teaching Council complaints censure, an Auditor General’s report appendix note and the involvement of the Ministry of Education.

The $70,000 still remains in dispute.

School’s new beginning, swept up in the past

The then 42-year-old Crowhurst started as principal at Papatoetoe East Primary in July 2018 after several years working as a deputy principal in Cockle Bay School, East Auckland.

He had spent years before that teaching in international schools in Hong Kong, and had completed masters and doctorate degrees in education.

The transition to the vibrant, lower socio-economic, South Auckland community was a dramatic and refreshing change.

But within a few weeks of Crowhurst’s arrival the appearance of a nondescript $30,000-odd in the school bank account had him puzzled.

The questions snowballed from there.

At that stage, Crowhust didn’t even know that there was a school vehicle that had still been in Gilbert’s possession in the intervening months since his retirement in early May 2018.

It turned out Gilbert had allegedly sold the school vehicle, a 2015 model Nissan Navara, to his wife around a month after he retired in June 2018. The vehicle, bought for $46,842, was allegedly sold to his wife for about $30,000.

The former principal had been seen driving it for several intervening months between early May when he retired, and the late winter of 2018 when he sold it to his wife.

“I can confirm that in 2018, not long after starting as principal at Papatoetoe East School, I noticed an anomaly in the school’s accounts arising from the sale of a school vehicle,” Crowhurst told the Herald.

“I was informed by a staff member that if I kept looking I would find dubious spending by a previous staff member associated with the vehicle, as well as personal expenses independent of the vehicle use. After following this up, I found that there had been a range of expenses with an extremely high probability of being personal costs incurred by the employee. This was confirmed by the professional opinion of an independent accountant. When it was brought to the attention of the board of trustees they acted appropriately to try and recover these costs.”

The school’s board of trustees engaged legal representation who, over the next 12 months, entered mediation in an attempt to get about $70,000 of allegedly personal expenses from Gilbert.

This figure was reached after independent chartered accountants Tremlett Associates analysed Gilbert’s school credit card receipts from December 2012 to May 2018 and identified charges totalling $24,500.78 that “have been identified as appearing to be not school-related”.

These costs excluded the school vehicle upgrades, which were not from Gilbert’s credit-card spends.

The Herald has seen receipts for expenses charged to Gilbert’s school credit card which provide a breakdown of the “not school-related” $24,500.78.

These include $8444 in diesel, $1107 in carwashes, $6508 in road user charges, $5234 in clothing and shoes, $658 in books, $175 in police/road fines, $454 in bins for one of his homes and $282 for rental of a woodchipper.

It’s understood Gilbert had also upgraded his school vehicle five times between 2008 and 2018.

The earlier car upgrades were beyond the statute of limitations for the school to attempt to retrieve, but a legal request was made to be reimbursed for two recent upgrades, in 2014 and 2015 of a Nissan Navara that amounted to $42,046 in lost resale value to the school.

People involved in the South Auckland school system say that a decile-2 primary school principal having a school vehicle they take home each night and which cost over $50,000 is almost unprecedented.

There would be some private Auckland schools in which the school principal has their own work vehicle, but those schools would typically bring in several million dollars each year via international students.

It’s understood Gilbert used to get jovially poked fun at over the years by his fellow South Auckland principal friends over his “school” Nissan Navaras. Amused questions and comments were teasingly thrown around to the effect – how did you get that?

It was also noted during the investigation that the last school Nissan Navara Gilbert took home each night had clocked around 20,000km in the same period that a second school vehicle – a van that was used to transport students short distances near the school grounds- had just a bit over 1000km. However, Gilbert allegedly maintained to the school board that the car was purely for driving to school each day from his Remuera home.

If a school principal is to get a work vehicle in New Zealand it has to be approved by the Ministry of Education as a concurrence benefit above what they are entitled to in their collective employment agreement. It is understood Gilbert’s Nissan Navara was never approved as an extra benefit.

The lack of a concurrence for Gilbert’s vehicle was raised in the results of the Auditor General’s 2018 school audits report, in that it breached section 75 of the State Sector Act 1988.

All up, Gilbert’s expenses amounted to the roughly $70,000 that the school has, so far unsuccessfully, attempted to get back from him.

In September 2018, shortly after the school engaged a lawyer, Gilbert was also reported to the Teaching Council Complaints Assessment Committee.

The CAC investigated two allegations levelled at him – the misuse of the school credit card by charging personal expenses, and using his school work vehicle for personal use and misleading an auditor about that personal use.

In its decision, the CAC “noted that the board of trustees did approve vehicles and Mr Gilbert’s expenses, but that did not mean that Mr Gilbert acted with integrity”.

“The CAC considered that there may have been some complacency as a long-serving principal around the finances, and that Mr Gilbert’s conduct did not demonstrate commitment to the Code of Professional Responsibility by having a high standard of integrity.”

Online gaming and personal clothing were also included in the “not school-related” expenses identified by the independent accountants hired by Papatoetoe East Primary.

“Mr Gilbert maintained that the clothing and book purchases were school-related and were used in gifts, for incentives, or provided to students who did not have the uniform,” the CAC chair Tania King writes in her report.

“Mr Gilbert did acknowledge that the software purchase and traffic fines were not school-related, but said that it must have been an error whereby the school credit card must have been saved on to his personal accounts. The personal expenses had not been raised with Mr Gilbert before the survey by the board of trustees’ accountant.

“The CAC noted that there were a number of purchases on the school credit card that were not school-related during the period of the investigation, and that Mr Gilbert only reimbursed the school for major purchases when the issue was raised. No evidence was noted that incidental purchases, such as food from a petrol station when filling up the principal’s vehicle, were repaid as well.

“The CAC considered that complacency had slipped into the reporting and auditing of the school’s finances due to Mr Gilbert being the principal for a long time, both by Mr Gilbert and successive boards of trustees. The CAC determined on the balance of probabilities that the conduct occurred as alleged, and required a disciplinary response …”

In relation to the school vehicles that were signed off by the Papatoetoe East school board, CAC chair King notes: “The CAC determined on the balance of probabilities that Mr Gilbert used the vehicle for more than just school-use, but did not consider there was sufficient evidence to suggest that Mr Gilbert upgraded the vehicle without the board of trustees consent or misled the auditor about any personal use of the vehicle.”

The CAC report from February 2022 states that a copy of the decision was sent to Gilbert. Because he had retired from teaching it had no impact on his career.

Teachers who are censured by the CAC can still go on teaching regardless, and the allegations against Gilbert were not elevated to the more serious Teaching Council Disciplinary Tribunal – for which the decisions must be publicly released.

Gilbert himself had a long tenure sitting on the Teaching Council’s Disciplinary Tribunal adjudicating on the conduct of other teachers before he retired in 2018.

The Teaching Council initially claimed Gilbert had served as a Disciplinary Tribunal panel member only from June 2008 to May 2014.

The Weekend Herald discovered Gilbert was one of three members on a Teaching Council Disciplinary Tribunal in August 2017, where they determined another teacher had engaged in misconduct by inappropriately handling a student.

After being shown the August 2017 Disciplinary Tribunal case Gilbert decided on, the Teaching Council clarified: “The last hearing Mr Gilbert acted as a Disciplinary Tribunal panel member for was in mid-2018. The published decision date for this hearing was published on 8.10.18.”

The Teaching Council noted decisions are on average published two months after the hearing, meaning Gilbert would have been adjudicating on another teacher’s conduct almost at the same time he was reported to them over his own spending in 2018.

After only seeing the Teaching Council censure decision in November, Crowhurst has raised several issues with it – claiming no staff from the school were interviewed for the investigation and it had inaccuracies.

“The investigation took more than three-and-a-half years to be resolved, which put a lot of strain on key people at the school,” Crowhust told the Herald in November.

“I wasn’t interviewed as part of the Teaching Council investigation. I’ve only seen the report in the last week and it had errors in it. If they had come to the school and spoken to relevant people they may have avoided these mistakes.”

The Teaching Council refused to comment on the processes of GIlbert’s investigation but noted: “If we become aware of allegations against a member of any of our disciplinary panels, our usual practice is to ask them to stand down until it has been resolved.”

Gilbert did not respond to the Herald’s attempts to put detailed questions to him about the spending on his school credit card.

Attempts were made to reach him through the defence lawyer who represented him during Papatoetoe East’s efforts to retrieve the $70,000, and the current principal of the school, Nicola Eley.

The Weekend Herald approached Morrison Kent law firm partner Phil Ahern in an attempt to have a series of questions and allegations presented to Gilbert for comment. Ahern had represented Gilbert in the mediation with Papatoetoe East Primary’s board of trustees when they unsuccessfully attempted to get the $70,000 or so repaid to the school.

In response to the Herald’s request to pass on the questions, Ahern responded with the following: “We do not communicate with any third parties in relation to potential client affairs. Your email will be deleted without actioning. Please immediately desist in your communications to us.”

When approached at his Remuera home – with the former school Nissan Navara parked in his driveway – Gilbert said: “I’m not interested in engaging with you at this stage thanks. It’s all been dealt with and as far as I’m concerned it’s come to an end after four years and I’m not engaging any more.

“You publish your story, and look out.”

Police say not enough willing witnesses to charge

The Weekend Herald has seen an Official Information Act transcript of the investigation into Gilbert by Counties Manukau police after it was reported to them by Crowhurst in May 2019.

Ultimately, police decided not to proceed with a prosecution because they believed there was not enough evidence to satisfy a judge to obtain a conviction.

“The main points from the file are that the offences that we can definitely prove ($1500) has been repaid. All members of the BOT would be required to be present in court to give evidence against Graeme,” the police investigator notes in the OIA documents.

“After speaking with the BOT members whose statements have been taken, they outlined that they are not interested in giving evidence in court due to the relationship with Graeme.”

This $1500 was repaid by Gilbert to the school at some point during the legal mediation with Papatoetoe East Primary.

Notes of the investigation into Gilbert released as part of the OIA response include efforts to get staff members of Papatoetoe East Primary who had spoken to police to make recorded statements.

Gilbert was interviewed twice at Otahuhu Police Station, on May 21 and 27, 2020.

In those interviews, Gilbert reportedly “gave a plausible reason for every transaction” which “due to time delay, I [the police investigator] could not disprove these claims”.

Part of the investigation into Gilbert’s credit card spending and use of school assets was his work iPhone and iPad which he had taken with him after retiring. The police investigation stated that Gilbert “assumed” that he could take the items with him as “all retiring or leaving staff” had done.

The police investigation documents say Gilbert subsequently returned the items to the school when it was raised. However, Crowhust alleges that Gilbert has never actually returned the iPad and iPhone to the school, and the iPhone was only bought in months before he retired.

In the OIA police documents, it states Gilbert “clarified [to police] the reasoning for the purchases”.

The police file states Gilbert had told them he had now reimbursed the school “for purchases that are definitely NOT school-related, i.e. traffic infringement, gaming & wood splitter”.

A major justification for why the police did not pursue Gilbert was because the board had approved the spending.

“It is very grey in regards to what was an acceptable purchase, the allocated budgets for school necessities and/or excursions as well as a lack of documentation about what exactly the school credit card could be used for by Graeme,” a Sergeant Kere writes.

Papatoetoe East Primary principal Nicola Eley, who took over the role after Crowhurst’s departure in December 2021, refused to answer detailed questions about the school’s efforts to retrieve approximately $70,000 from Gilbert.

“This matter was brought to the attention of the appropriate authorities in 2018. After investigation it was found there was not sufficient grounds to take the matter further and it was closed,” Eley said.

“The board will make no further comment.”

The Ministry of Education’s Isabel Evans, hautū (leader) Te Tai Raro (north), initially would not provide any confirmation to the Weekend Herald that the ministry was aware of the police and Teaching Council investigations into Gilbert.

“Schools are self-governing and therefore the school board would be the appropriate authority with the responsibility of school finances, including the credit card spending of the principal,” she said.

This was despite a ministry staffer coming to meet Crowhust shortly after the matter of Gilbert’s credit card expenses was raised.

However, when pressed again, Evans confirmed the ministry was aware back in 2018 of the investigations into Gilbert.

“The principal appointed to the school in 2018 brought the matter to our attention in 2018 and confirmed the school board was investigating the situation. We have provided support to the board and principal,” Evans said.

Crowhurst was more sympathetic of the police’s efforts to investigate Gilbert than the ministry.

“Even though we reached out several times, the school received virtually no support from the Ministry of Education. They have since apologised for the way the matter was handled by them,” he said.

“The police are very busy in South Auckland and I appreciate the service they offer, even if I don’t agree with the conclusion they reached in this case.”

Reflecting on the entire ordeal, Crowhurst only lamented it did not have a more substantial financial outcome for the decile 2 school.

“I have no comment on the outcome of the discipline process for Mr Gilbert. My only concern was to recover the school’s lost funds. I am deeply regretful that we weren’t more successful in doing this,” Crowhurst said.