Neil Metcalf abused his trusted position to steal more than £15,000 after racking up a huge £100,000 credit card debt
A disgraced headteacher’s “excellent” career lies in tatters after he was exposed as a fraud. Neil Metcalf was once “precisely the sort one would want in leadership in a school”, motivating students and inspiring confidence at St Anthony of Padua Catholic Primary School and Our Lady’s Bishop Eton Catholic Primary School in Mossley Hill, where he worked.
Secretly, he was abusing his trusted position to steal more than £15,000 from the two schools after racking up a huge £100,000 credit card debt. The 51-year-old, of Jubilee Avenue in Childwall, sent the money in the form of cheques to his unsuspecting stepson, with instructions to transfer the money into his personal bank account after the cheques had cleared.
He made six fraudulent payments of £1,800 each, totalling £10,800, from St Anthony of Padua Catholic Primary School between September 2017 and May 2022. He made three fraudulent payments of £2,160, £250 and £2,280 from Our Lady’s Bishop Eton Catholic Primary School between September 2022 and September 2023 – adding up to a grand total of £15,490. He pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by abuse of position in Liverpool Crown Court last month.
His offending was discovered when the finance officer at Our Lady’s Bishop Eton noticed an unusual invoice made out to a company called “School Fit” and “J. Neil”. She asked Metcalf about the payment, and he told her it was for “health and safety”.
Prosecutor Callum Ross, at court today, August 19, said: “The officer recalled how Neil was the surname of the defendant’s stepson, who was called Joseph. That made her suspicious. She then Googled School Fit as a result of her concerns and could find no information on that company at all. The VAT number was also invalid. That was all explored by the financial team further.”
Emails were sent to Metcalf requesting information about School Fit, but he did not reply. A later search of his computer showed a file titled “School Fit”, which was created after the email requesting further information was sent. The school also emailed School Fit directly, but received no response.
Another unusual invoice to England Athletics, made in June 2023, was identified during the investigation. The VAT number on the £250 invoice, which Metcalf had supplied to the school’s finance team, was invalid, and the company confirmed the invoice was not an authentic one. Metcalf was suspended from his job in November 2023 after police were called, and the investigation spread to his former school, St Anthony of Padua.
That schools’ finance officer also discovered a number of suspicious payments made out to J. Neil. Police officers spoke to Metcalf’s stepson, Joseph, who said his stepfather had “repeatedly asked him for cheques to be put into his account and that money to be sent back to him once the cheque had cleared”. Text messages from Metcalf showed these requests, along with his bank details.
Mr Ross said Metcalf – who earned £80,000 a year as a headteacher – had committed “an abuse of a position of power and trust and responsibility”. He said: “Where St Anthony’s is concerned they say the money could have been put to better use. It was not an insignificant amount of money for a school which relies on resources to further the children’s education. Bishop Eton states they unfortunately had to employ an interim headteacher for half a year at a cost of £33,500 while the school was also having to pay the defendant’s wages until June 2024, when he resigned. They cancelled plans to buy pupils’ iPads due to the cost.”
Oliver Saddington, defending, said Metcalf had committed the fraud after maxing out his credit cards and spiralling into £100,000 of debt. He said: “Unfortunately, the shame about telling his family about his predicament tilted his conscience away from good judgement, All he did was to keep up appearance that all was well for his family. He wished for his wife and family to continue to live within the means they thought they had. It was not out of any ill will or nastiness that these offences were committed.
“At 51 he’s mortified he found himself in the dock at a crown court. He has enjoyed a positive career dedicated to teaching children in Merseyside and supporting them to achieve their best.
“Former colleagues regard him as professional and precisely the sort one would want in leadership in a school. Former students say he gave them confidence in their abilities and was motivational and kind.”
He added: “His dedication to his career is in pieces. But the skills that he has acquired over a career dedicated to educating others don’t vanish overnight and he would like to be a teacher again.”
Sentencing Metcalf to 15 months in prison, judge Mark Ainsworth said: “It’s clear that you were an excellent teacher and you were an effective leader. Plainly as a headteacher you had a particularly high position of authority.” He added: “I fully accept these convictions will bring an end to your professional career and while it may be you can serve the community in the future, it will not be as a teacher, and certainly not a headteacher.”