Ex-principal Rhett Watts, who faked qualifications to land top education roles, dodges jail

A former principal who faked qualifications to get plum education roles has avoided jail, after four years of deceptions unravelled when he applied for the top job at Frankston High School.

Former school principal Rhett Watts has walked free after faking his qualifications to land top education roles. Picture: David Caird

Former principal Rhett Watts, who faked qualifications to get plum education roles, has avoided jail after four years of deceptions came undone because of a suspicious Frankston High School executive.

The ballroom dancer walked free from the County Court on Thursday with orders to pay back almost $200k of the Education Department’s money that he was never entitled to.

The former principal of the Katandra School and Currajong School was told he otherwise would have been jailed for at least a year were it not for an early plea of guilty.

The court heard the 43-year-old’s lies, contained in resumes over four years, unravelled after applying for the top job at Frankston High in 2020.

The court heard Watts’ lies unravelled after they applied for the top job at Frankston High in 2020.

During his application, Watts stated he had implemented a program for disengaged children while working as a PE teacher at the nearby Karingal Park Secondary, now called McClelland College, in 2004.

But the former Karingal Park principal Angela Pollard — who was assistant principal that crucial year — was on the employment panel and “had no memory of (Watts) working there”.

It turned out that Ms Pollard had managed the very same ‘Connect’ program that improved disengaged student outcomes that Watts claimed to have started, which was rolled out before 2004.

A probe was launched, after which Watts claimed there were “some typos and some information that should have been removed” from his resume, caused by a recruitment consultant who made errors.

But investigations soon found that Watts had made the same claims to get gigs as assistant principal at the Marnebek School and principal at the Katandra School.

Among fake claims made to get top jobs was that Watts held a Master of Education from the University of Wollongong, a Master of Science from the University of Southampton, and was near completion of a Master of Business Administration at Griffith University.

By April 2021, Watts took sick leave from the Katandra School and never returned, sending a letter of resignation a month later then taking up the principal job at independent primary campus The Currajong School in East Malvern.

Watts’ home was raided in March 2023, and he later pleaded guilty to a single rolled up charge of obtaining $697,747.63 by deception from the Department of Education.

Judge Andrew Palmer accepted Watts wasn’t motivated by greed.

The charge related to the salary earned from roles obtained through the fake resumes as principal at the Katandra School and assistant principal at Cranbourne’s Marnebek School, where Watts had worked as a teacher for more than a decade before seeking out the leadership role in 2017.

Judge Andrew Palmer accepted Watts wasn’t motivated by greed, but was “motivated by ego and the desire for attention and authority”.

Watts, who is now working in customer relations at Dan Murphys, was convicted and handed a two-year community corrections order with 250 hours of unpaid community work.

A restitution order to pay back $178,749.26 was also made, which was the difference in earnings from teacher to the leadership roles between 2018 and 2021.

Had Watts not pleaded guilty, he would have been sentenced to 18 months jail with a minimum of 12 months.

The offence of obtaining financial advantage by deception carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.