By Gavin Mackintosh-
A superhead is in court after receiving “unauthorised” payments of nearly £300,000 which helped him plunge his former federation of schools into deficit, court documents have revealed.
Sir Craig Tunstall is in the High court for a legal suit he issued against Lambeth Council in south London for at least £200,000 over claims that an “excessive workload”, exacerbated by plans to open a free school, left him depressed.
Tunstall- once England’s best paid primary headteacher on £367,000 a year- was dismissed as chief executive from the council-maintained Gipsy Hill Federation (GHF) in 2018 for “gross misconduct”.
Lawyers on behalf of Lambeth and GHF are defending the claim against them by detailing the grounds of the formerly best paid primary school teacher in Britain. They argue that the dismissal against Tunsall is justified.
They say that Tunstall and two senior colleagues were found to have received unauthorised payments totalling nearly £500,000, leaving a hole in the federation’s finances.
A disciplinary panel also found that a text sent in May 2017 by Tunstall to Lambeth’s head of schools’ HR, in which he called her a “vindictive c**t”, was “bullying, abusive and highly unprofessional” (see below).
The council’s submission was presented to the court in response to Tunstall’s lawsuit. The papers shows an internal council investigation into forged documents, completed in February 2017, found at least 13 payroll forms “appeared to contain forged signatures”.
The papers reveal that an Internal Audit and Counter Fraud Service investigation uncovered evidence that Natalie Walters, GHF’s head of human resources, had been using electronic signatures, without approval, to procure payments from Lambeth’s payroll department – including “substantial” payments to Tunstall.
The investigation report identified evidence of “failure to adopt and operate proper financial systems”, “failure to control budgeting and expenditure” and “accepting remuneration payments that had not been authorised” by GHF.
It included the fact that Tunstall was allegedly in receipt of additional sums – totalling £288,399 – that were paid to him without the knowledge, or authorisation, of GHF. Tunstall was suspended in May 2017.
The papers say the panel also found a deficit of £400,000 in GHF’s funds that was “significantly contributed by the making of unauthorised remuneration payments”. As well as the payments to Tunstall, these include £105,491 to Walters and £103,926 to Kevin Sparkes, the federation’s finance director, the court documents reveal. .
Tunstall’s representatives say no allegations of fraud or dishonesty are made against him, neither is it alleged that he was aware he was receiving unauthorised payments. They say the fact that any such payments were unauthorised or unlawful is denied.
They also say it is not alleged that Tunstall “colluded” with Walters or Sparkes, or anyone else, to procure unauthorised payments to himself or others.
The council papers go as far as stating that at a meeting with governors and the council in March 2013, Tunstall indicated he would take a “less-hands-on role” as chief executive in a restructure, which he denies. The council also claimed Tunstall was told he should not continue to “receive large payments every time a new school joined” the federation.
Documents show he had received additional yearly payments of up to £46,000 for each new school.
The papers claim Walters submitted various signed payroll forms that purported to authorise payments to Tunstall as part of his remuneration package, by using electronic signatures of the-then chair of governors, despite receiving no approval.
Lambeth claims that in March 2017, Tunstall told an HR officer at GHF that he had only recently become aware of various “ongoing allowances and honoraria” that were being paid to Sparkes and Walters and that the payments should stop. However, he “did not take any steps” to stop the unauthorised payments that he received.
Lambeth also says that his role as executive headteacher at each school had “diminished significantly”, and he had “enthusiastically” promoted the expansion of GHF.
However, Tunstall’s legal team claims that in December 2016 he sent an email to Lambeth council about the academisation and the free school project, saying he felt at the lowest point of his teaching career, and his “personal well-being has been eroded with every day of delayed conversion”. Tunsall also claims he had informed a previous chair of governors he had been diagnosed with depression.
Tunstall has also issued papers for a separate employment tribunal hearing on claims he was unfairly dismissed and for damages.
In a statement, Lambeth Council said it understood that Tunstall was seeking a stay of his High Court claim, pending the outcome of the employment tribunal.