Ex-head accused of holidays cash fiddle

The former headteacher of a Black Country special school has been accused of spending thousands of pounds of school funds on private holidays to the Caribbean.

Miss Susan Duncan, who worked at The Meadows School, in Dudley Road East, Oldbury, also filed expenses claims for items such as handbags, table lamps and scuba diving equipment, a committee for the General Teaching Council in Birmingham heard yesterday.

The hearing was told she claimed that the trips to Jamaica and Antigua were risk assessments for future school trips. Miss Duncan, who did not attend the hearing due to ill health, denies eight allegations of professional misconduct.

A second teacher, Margaret Simcox, who travelled to Jamaica with Miss Duncan in April 2006, is also accused of making false claims for expenses.

Presenting officer Andrew Faux, who made the case against the two teachers, said Miss Simcox, who also did not attend, was nursing Miss Duncan, who she lives with.

The committee agreed to proceed in Miss Simcox's absence as if she had denied the three allegations made against her. The hearing was told that suspicions arose after Miss Duncan was seconded away from the school suffering from "sick building syndrome" and acting headteacher Jane Edgerton took over.

Mrs Edgerton, who is now headteacher at Brays School in Sheldon, told the hearing that claims for a handbag raised alarm bells. An investigation was launched in June 2006 on behalf of Sandwell Council by senior investigation officer Anthony O'Donaghue.

Miss Duncan, who was relocated to Victoria Park School, Oldbury, as an advisory headteacher, resigned in February 2007. Miss Simcox was dismissed from Meadows School in April 2007 for gross misconduct.

The hearing continues.