Kimberley College principal claims he’s owed $450,000

KIMBERLEY College principal Paul Thomson, who pocketed more than $700,000 in 2016, has sensationally claimed he’s owed $450,000 from his school.

Kimberley College principal Paul Thomson claims he’s owed $450,000. He made the claims after a letter was sent to from the school’s board citing examples of alleged “financial mismanagement and misconduct”.

• Principal & family ‘spent $350k’ on trip
• College group ‘want senior heads to roll’

A PRINCIPAL who pocketed more than $700,000 in 2016 has taken to Facebook to sensationally claim he’s owed $450,000 from his school.

Kimberley College’s Paul Thomson has responded to the school board’s letter that was issued to parents last night and detailed examples of alleged “financial mismanagement and misconduct”.

The letter, sent to the college community late yesterday by board chairman Paul Wilton, revealed unauthorised loans to members of the Thomson and Ferguson family had totalled more than $650,000 over the past three financial years.

“I am currently owed approximately $450,000.00 by the College in reimbursements and unpaid wages,” Mr Thomson’s Facebook post read.

Principal Paul Thomson made the claims on Facebook.

The post said the board had approved the 2016 audited financial statements last year and that chair Mr Wilton was “heavily involved” throughout the audit.

Mr Thomson also referred to the claim that $27,000 was paid to the Hyatt Canberra in 2017 from his daughter Amy Ferguson’s company credit card.

“Chairman of the board, Mr Paul Wilton, accompanied the academy on their trip to Canberra and stayed at the Hyatt with the academy, free of charge,” it read.

Mr Wilton, who was appointed board chair in 2016, said the audited figures had been accepted.

“They were the audited figures. It wasn’t approved by us, we accepted they were the audited figures … we tried to deal with what we found in those figures at a later stage,” he said.

“We had no choice but to sign off on it because it was very late and the school had run out of funding and all the new funding was being held up until that audit was signed.”

Mr Wilton said he attended the Canberra trip as the bus driver because it was his bus company, Underwood Bus Services, that went.

“I didn’t know where we were staying until we got there,” he said.

It comes after The Courier-Mail revealed Underwood Bus Services recorded earnings of more than $1.073 million.

Kimberley College.

In a statement to The Courier-Mail, a spokesman for UBS said it was a contractual service for Kimberley College.

“The payment is made to Underwood Bus Service and no payment is made directly to Paul Wilton. Paul Wilton sits on the College Board in a voluntary capacity and he does not receive a payment.”

In 2016, Mr Thomson was paid $407,072 while also pocketing $320,000 in back pay.

Forensic accountants GT Advisory and Consulting has been undertaking a financial review at the college in recent weeks.

Mr Thomson’s post also said the board had failed to include in its letter that the election of a new board had been recommended.

His Facebook post comes as The Courier-Mail revealed his family allegedly splashed more than $350,000 on an extravagant overseas trip while pocketing more than $1.7 million in wages and unauthorised bonuses.

The six-week holiday to Finland and the UK in 2016, totalling $350,945, was allegedly taken by Mr Thomson, his wife Jennifer, Amy and her husband Kevin Ferguson, another daughter Debbie Thomson, and an unknown man with the last name Thomson, as well as four children.

There is no suggestion that anyone other than Paul and Amy Thomson were aware the trip was funded by the school.

A review of the college’s financial management by forensic accounting firm GT Advisory and Consulting, which was launched last month, considered about $141,000 of the trip to be employment-related.

The letter sent last night said “the trip was wholly unauthorised by the board”.

The board’s letter also said that during 2017, accommodation-related expenses worth more than $21,000 were charged to “Mr Thomson and Mrs Ferguson’s company credit cards”.