Neil Lennie’s ex-colleague demands answers over his free run in education system

A covert recording reveals fake principal Neil Lennie was secretly plotting something that would blindside his business partner.

Former school principal Dr Neil Lennie at his home in Box Hill, Melbourne. Picture: David Geraghty / The Australian.

Fake principal Neil Lennie’s former business partner has demanded to know why authorities allowed the fraudster to continue teaching in his school for years unchecked.

Jian Wang, speaking publicly for the first time since their school New Generation College was shut down in 2015, said the teaching conman’s case had created “a bad name for the reputation of the education system”.

“They should be looking back and seeing what their responsibility is — why did you people allow this to happen in many, many schools,” he said.

Lennie pleaded guilty to having worked in four private schools without a licence between 1976 and 2000.

But he did not face charges for working as principal for more than a decade at the school he founded with Mr Wang in 2004, New Generation College.

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Lennie relinquished his teaching registration in 2009 — although this was a fake — but continued to teach at his school until 2014, when the regulator charged him with unregistered teaching for five years.

“How could such a thing happen without any check-ups?” asked Mr Wang.

“There is a big question about who should be responsible for this.”

Lennie pleaded guilty to having worked in four private schools without a licence between 1976 and 2000.

Mr Wang revealed he sacked the fake principal from the school they created together in 2014 after finding he was plotting to open a rival school.

A secret tape of Lennie spruiking his new venture, Imperial College Melbourne, shows he was attempting to poach students to his school in direct competition with New Generation College.

The recording shines a light on how Lennie, the inspiring educator, captivated students and asked them how they were going to “change the world”.

The tape would be the evidence Mr Wang needed to march Lennie out after 11 years at the helm.

A year later, New Generation College, then renamed Melbourne Senior Secondary, was shut down by the government over student welfare concerns.

Mr Wang believes the defunct school was unfairly targeted for being caught up in the fraudster’s web of lies.

A week after Lennie was publicly exposed for teaching at New Generation without a licence in 2015, the school he built with Mr Wang was shut down, forcing out almost 100 students and teachers.

Mr Wang said someone was trying to “bury” the school because of its association with Lennie.

Almost 100 students and teachers were forced out when the school’s doors were shut.

A civil hearing was told there were less drastic options available than to close it down.

Lennie’s plans for rival school Imperial College Melbourne would never eventuate — he opened the campus as a Box Hill tutoring college that continues to run today.

But the fraud would go on to plan an elite multi-campus private school, Imperial Grammar, while he was being investigated for criminal charges in 2019.

The planned 4000 student school has been thrown into doubt since Lennie’s links with the college have been exposed.

In this six-part podcast series, reporters Ashley Argoon and Genevieve Alison uncover the truth behind Neil Lennie’s carefully curated facade which he used to fool his colleagues for decades.

Listen to a new episode each Thursday and Sunday, accompanied by a companion story exposing one of Victoria’s biggest frauds.