Future of St Pats?

[cpwigan]

http://www.wigantoday.net/news/rugby_bo ... _1_3099110

[Kittwazzer]

I've often wondered how something like this can happen. How can a school not miss 50 Grand, how can an amateur club receive a similar amount without eyebrows being raised?

At the end of the day, its only money. My heart goes out to his family. Having lost a loving father in such a horrible way, they now have to deal with all of this!

Tragic!

[doc]

According to Saturdays Evening Post Pat's are denying having received the money but are now getting their books audited to check.

I seem to remember reading in the RL press last year that Pat's were in dire straits financially so the Deanery may not have been the only victim.

Apparently (info from WEP) the payments to Pat's amounting to £44k were made via faked invoices to suppliers and using forged signatures of senior Deanery staff over a period of 3 1/2 years. A further £4k was paid to Bill Atherton himself.

[cherrywarrior]

It was taken from the Governers Account which holds the schools charitable donations from fund raising, thats how it was missed for so long. The Deanery has to find 10% of everything they spend on building costs, thats what the money in the account was for...

[cpwigan]

Bill was the Bursar KW so on that basis he could ammend the figures etc as he wished but it would be spotted by the external audit that happens every 2 or 3 years or sooner if the annual account looked suspect to somebody. The bursar in any school has huge control over managing/auditing school finances.

[neilbass]

Its all very sad. We got the letter on Friday as our youngest is at Deanery. It seems there have been serious holes in procedures at both The Deanery and St Pats for this to go on so long unnoticed.
The Deanery letter states it was going on as far ago as 2007, and that they have annual audits of all accounts.

The 'potential irregularities' were only picked up in the October 2010 audit, so the concealment was either very thorough or the audit process was rather shoddy.

The auditors also note that Mr Atherton was both Chairman and Treasurer at St Pats during the period the fraud was going on, as well as being Business Manager for the school.
From my own studies and working knowledge of Audit and Segregation of Duties etc the roles of Treasurer and Chairman should always be kept separate, so it is concerning that at Pats it hasn't been.

They are very wise to have their own books examined (surprised it isn't done as a formality already though?).

Our own memories of Mr Atherton are of somebody who always seemed totally dedicated to all levels of Rugby League within The Deanery, who regularly attended all age group matches, who made St Pats facilities available for matches & after-match meals etc, and who hosted the Annual Sports Awards dinner etc etc. Whatever made this man do these things all of this shouldn't be forgotten.

As I said, all very sad - and how awful for his children and parents who survive him and must be finding all of this incredibly hard to accept.