School board manager accused of using employees to do jobs for his personal benefit
The fraud trial of a former Newfoundland and Labrador English School District manager — who is accused of directing school board employees to clean his personal truck, wax his all-terrain vehicle, service his daughter's car, and build sheds and a trailer for his personal use — is set to draw to a close.
Derek Newhook, 54, of Lewin's Cove on the Burin Peninsula, is facing 18 charges — 15 counts of fraud under $5,000, two counts of fraud over $5,000, and one count of breach of trust by a public officer.
The allegations span a 12-year time frame, from 2003 through the end of 2015.
Newhook was charged nearly two years ago.
His trial began last June. Newhook pleaded not guilty, and testified in his own defence, denying all of the allegations.
After several lengthy breaks, court proceedings were scheduled to resume at provincial court in Grand Bank Friday morning, for the lawyers to make their final submissions to the judge.
However, the matter was postponed, and submissions are now set for the end of May.
RCMP investigated allegations
In testimony last June, when the trial began, RCMP Const. Michael Collins outlined the allegations.
Newhook is accused of using employees to do personal work for him, and charging those hours to the school board.
That personal work allegedly included:
- Using district employees to move wood from Garnish to the Burin school bus depot — a distance of more than 20 kilometres — where they built a baby barn during school board work hours.
- Making a motorcycle stand, building three sheds, and a trailer big enough for a shed to go on.
- Working on his personal boat trailer during school board hours.
- Having employees wax his personal ATV, polish his utility trailer, clean his personal vehicle on school board hours, while charging for overtime in at least one case.
- Getting a bus driver to clean his personal truck, which resulted in someone else being called in to handle that driver's bus run.
The school board began looking into the situation in January 2016.
Newhook had complained about workplace issues involving two employees in the depot, and the school board launched a human resources investigation.
Those employees in turn then made allegations about Newhook, which the board then began to probe.
"What it looked like to us was a misappropriation of public resources for personal gain," the NLESD's then-assistant director of education for human resources, Lloyd Collins, testified last summer.
"That's how it appeared."
The school board called in the RCMP, and fired Newhook for cause a few months later.
At the time of his dismissal, Newhook was regional operations manager for facilities and transportation on the Burin Peninsula, and had 25 to 30 employees reporting to him.
Work 'absolutely not' paid for by school board
Newhook — who was was initially hired in 1999, as transportation supervisor for the Burin region — took the stand in his own defence.
Asked by defence lawyer Randy Piercey whether work described in the charges against him was done on school board time, Newhook repeatedly said: "Absolutely not."
Newhook said workers sometimes offered to help him out during off-hours, but did not do any work while they were on the clock for the school district.
He noted that his some of his personal property was actually used to benefit the school district — for example, a trailer that moved equipment around from school to school.
Newhook added that the sheds in question were also for district use.
And he said a truck described as his actually wasn't owned by him, but was instead a rental that he drove when the school board availed of it.
Newhook said some of the decisions referenced in the charges against him were suggested or made by another school district staffer, the "go-to guy" for facilities management.
Crown lawyer Daniel Vavasour took aim at those discussions in cross-examining Newhook. He noted that employee was "unfortunately deceased, not here to, I guess, corroborate any of that."
Newhook stressed that employees were never paid by the board for personal work, but said he would sometimes buy supper for them out of his personal funds.
Vavasour put this question to Newhook: "Everything that you're asked about seems to be after hours, or in the evening. Is it normal that there would be this many employees working after hours, just helping out and doing things for free?"
Newhook replied: "We had several employees … who used to hang around," naming several mechanics. "They didn't punch the clock, as we say."
Other investigation remains ongoing
The investigation that led to charges against Newhook is not the only one related to allegations of fraud at the Newfoundland and Labrador English School District.
In early 2016, the Royal Newfoundland Constabulary and the auditor general were called in to look into other matters.
Education officials and the RNC have declined recent requests for comment on the progress of those probes.
