Disgraced Glenwood Boys' High School headmaster Trevor Kershaw has pleaded guilty to defrauding the school out of more than R5.2m through duplicated claims, “home-made invoices” and manipulated vouchers. Kershaw, now 58, was headmaster at the school from 1999 until 2016 when he resigned under a cloud. He now works as a storeman at a firm owned by his brother. While he will serve no time in jail, R3m, being the cash value of assets which were seized by the Asset Forfeiture Unit, will be released to the school.
Kershaw also has a 10-year suspended sentence hanging over his head and, under correctional supervision legislation, he will be under house arrest for three years and required to do community service and attend rehabilitation programmes. The school is still suing him personally - and the auditors who signed off on the school’s financials between 2007 and 2016 - for damages relating to the 1,623 dodgy reimbursement claims he made and what it cost the school to pay for a forensic audit to determine the extent of his fraud. In a plea bargain which was negotiated between his lawyers, Carl van der Merwe and advocate Gideon Scheltema SC, with prosecutor Wendy O’Brien, Kershaw says he is “remorseful”. He says “due to an excessive workload” he did not keep the necessary documents to substantiate his reimbursement claims for “actual expenses” incurred on behalf of the school.
“Over time, he submitted claims on documents which had either been lost or replaced. Many were based on fictitious documents, not reflecting the disbursements accurately. “He foresaw the possibility that the school was being misled but nevertheless continued ... with actual prejudice to the school.” The agreement, which was signed off by specialist Durban commercial court magistrate Dawn Soomaroo on Thursday, stated that the most significant general ledger allocation was labelled under the reference “packer” - which totalled an unjustified claim for about R2.5m for additional remuneration.
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