Neil Metcalf barred from teaching for six years after £15,490 fraud
Neil Metcalf has been barred from teaching for at least six years after a Teacher Regulation Agency hearing over fraud involving two Liverpool primary schools. The former headteacher stole £15,490 through six payments from one school and three more from another.
The panel said he abused his position at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Primary School and Our Lady’s Bishop Eton Catholic Primary School in Mossley Hill over a significant period of time. He had already pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of position in Liverpool Crown Court and was sentenced to 15 months in prison.
St Anthony of Padua payments
Metcalf was headmaster of St Anthony of Padua Catholic Primary School between 2016 and 2022. Between September 2017 and May 2022, he made six fraudulent payments of £1,800 each from the school, taking £10,800 in total.
That conduct formed part of the fraud case that later reached the Teacher Regulation Agency. The panel described it as a sophisticated fraud and said he committed the offences at two schools over a significant period of time.
Our Lady’s Bishop Eton
He moved on to Our Lady’s Bishop Eton Catholic Primary School in 2022 and was suspended there in November 2023. Between September 2022 and September 2023, he made three further fraudulent payments of £2,160, £250 and £2,280.
The finance officer at Our Lady’s Bishop Eton noticed an unusual invoice made out to a company called School Fit and J. Neil. Metcalf told the finance officer that the payment was for “health and safety.”
Teacher Regulation Agency hearing
Metcalf resigned in June 2024 and was referred to the Teacher Regulation Agency in July 2024. In a report released by the agency, he said he was “deeply ashamed of” his decisions and wrote that any further sanction “would not be necessary.”
He also said the matter had been “broadcast over the local press” and that he would “never be a headteacher again.” The six-year ban keeps him out of teaching for at least that long, ending any return to the profession during that period.
