Former Copland school head Alan Davies must pay back more than £1.3m for bonus scam

Alan Davies, who steered Copland Community School in Cecil Avenue, benefitted from the “vast sums” he received in unlawful bonuses over several years before he was suspended in May 2009.

He must now pay £1,395,839 plus 75 percent of Brent Council’s assessed legal costs, the High Court ruled on Friday.

The payments to Davies and three associates were approved by former chair of governors Dr Indravadan Patel and former vice chair of governors, Martin Day.

Patel and Day were both criticised by the Judge for “wholesale failures” and “reckless indifference”.

They must now pay back £552,729 between them plus 65 pc of the council’s assessed legal costs.

Davies, who was knighted for services to education, had previously taken home more than £400,000 in one year, three times his £160,000-a-year salary .

The 71-year-old was stripped of his knighthood after he was given a two-year suspended sentence for false accounting in 2013.

He resigned from his post in October 2009 after more than 20 years in the job, after the claims.

At Southwark Crown Court in 2013, Davies pleaded guilty to six counts of false accounting.

He admitted creating eight back-payment documents at the same time, for sums of about £315,000.

Davies received £950,000 in total from the £2.707,391 that was overpaid.

Cllr Margaret McLennan, deputy leader of Brent Council, said: “We are delighted with the verdict as it means the money, which had been swindled, is now going to be returned and can now be used for the benefit of local people.

“Davies and his colleagues were arrogantly paying themselves ridiculously high and unjustified bonuses, including Davies pocketing a whopping £400,000 in one year - which is around three times the going rate for the job.

“It has taken years of stamina and determination to win this victory but justice has finally been done.”

Copland Community School, now Ark Elvin Academy, closed on August 31 2014.