Hillcrest Christian College chairman’s corporate rap sheet
It has been rocked by months of turmoil including bullying allegations against the principal – now a troubled Gold Coast private school’s chairman’s rap sheet has been exposed.
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THE chairman of a troubled Gold Coast private school has previously pleaded guilty to corporate crime involving a former Ferrari-driving tech entrepreneur.
Jame Stanton Lewis, a Victorian solicitor, was appointed co-chair of Hillcrest Christian College earlier this year after months of turmoil including bullying allegations against the principal, an exodus of staff and controversy over hundreds of thousands of dollars in school loans to a private company set up to commercialise a reading program.
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The Courier-Mail has learned Mr Lewis was charged with aiding and abetting corporate offending following an investigation by corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission in 2010.
He pleaded guilty in Melbourne Magistrates Court in December 2011 and was placed on a two-year good behaviour bond with a special condition that he pay $10,000 into the court fund.
Mr Lewis, a solicitor and former partner of Melbourne law firm Lewis Holdway, was also ordered to pay court costs of $233.60. No conviction was recorded.
In a statement at the time, ASIC said Mr Lewis had pleaded guilty to a charge of having aided, abetted, counselled or procured the commission of an offence by Stephen Lionel Moignard of managing companies while disqualified because of his insolvency.
The charge to which Mr Lewis pleaded guilty relates to Mr Moignard’s management of three companies — Secure Portfolio Management Pty Ltd, i2i Media Pty Ltd and Wine Logistics Pty Ltd. Mr Lewis was a director of all three companies.
Mr Moignard — who founded failed technology giant Davnet in the 1990s and zipped around in two Ferraris — pleaded guilty on in 2009 to five charges of managing companies while disqualified because of insolvency and was fined a total of $15,000.
ASIC said his prosecution was consistent with its ‘commitment to ensuring that gatekeepers such as company directors and lawyers are held to account’.
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Mr Lewis was elevated from director to co-chairman of the Hillcrest board following the dumping of former chairman Len Oldfield at a heated annual meeting of the Reedy Creek Baptist Church company which runs the school in May.
He is also a co-director of I Love Reading Pty Ltd, a company set up in 2017 to commercialise a phonetic reading program used by the college. His co-directors are Hillcrest principal Jeff Davis and Mr Oldfield.
The college has loaned I Love Reading more than $600,000, sparking anger from many parents and complaints to the State Government’s private schools watchdog, the Non-State Schools Accreditation Board.
The college recently announced the sale of I Love Reading to a Hong Kong company for more than $1 million. It has defended loans to I Love Reading and said proceeds from the sale would go back to the college.
The Hillcrest board ordered an “independent” investigation by a lawyer into unspecified and unverified complaints against Mr Davis “so that they can be properly resolved and we can put these matters behind us”.
“We hope that the review will put an end to rumours and anonymous claims that only serve to distract our staff and students,” said Mr Moyes, pastor at the Reedy Creek Baptist Church which runs the college.
The board has stood by Mr Davis, despite dozens of parents and disgruntled current and former staff members signing a petition to have him stood down.
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