Questions have been raised with senior figures at City Hall over whether the “superstar” headteacher of a secondary school in Coulsdon who was dismissed for gross misconduct can continue in an influential role with MOPAC – the Mayor of London’s office for policing and crime.
Keeping the Met in check: Paul Mundy-Castle chairs an important MOPAC committee
As Inside Croydon reported exclusively last week, Paul Mundy-Castle’s Employment Tribunal case, claiming unfair and wrongful dismissal, race discrimination and victimisation against his former employers at Woodcote High School, was dismissed on all counts.
Mundy-Castle was sacked from his £105,000 per year job at the 1,200-pupil school in July 2021 for gross misconduct after the school found he had committed serious financial mismanagement.
But in 2022, Mundy-Castle was revealed as the first chair of a new body with oversight of the Metropolitan Police.
According to MOPAC, the External Reference Group, or ERG, was established as part of the Mayor’s response to the Casey Review into the Metropolitan Police, which included significant criticisms about racism in the Met and the use of stop and search.
Announcing the ERG’s establishment, MOPAC said that it was “to help ensure that the voices of London’s communities are at the heart of the Mayor’s and Commissioner’s Action Plan work and they are directly involved in the oversight of the work to improve transparency, trust and confidence in the Met”.
As recently as this summer, while his Employment Tribunal was still a “live” case, Mundy-Castle posted on social media, “I am proud to chair the ERG for Mayor’s Office for Policing And Crime.” He wrote of how the ERG “had a positive meeting to reaffirm our purpose and plans to keep the dispropotionanilty [sic] issue on the agenda.
“So great to meet with such a selfless group of Londoners fighting for change despite the challenges,” Mundy-Castle wrote.
“Holding the Metropolitan Police to account is so important as we have to create a police service that is accountable to the people it serves… It is time for Londoners to start seeing positive change in the service.”
Under scrutiny: Met Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley
Mundy-Castle’s case to the Employment Tribunal alleged racism against Woodcote High’s governors. This was the same body which, in 2019, had given him the job of headteacher. The governors included BAME members – black and minority ethnic.
In his detailed, 100-plus page judgement which was made public last week, Employment Judge Stephen Heath dismissed all Mundy-Castle’s claims. “Some of the evidence was strongly suggestive of Mr Mundy-Castle misleading the school,” the judge wrote.
Of Mundy-Castle’s spending when headteacher at Woodcote High, the judge said that he “was ultimately accountable for financial matters and he engaged in a course of conduct of repeatedly entering into agreements above the delegated limit and without appropriate approval”.
Among the contracts that Mundy-Castle committed Woodcote to was one for video filming with a company of which his half-brother was the owner. Mundy-Castle failed to declare this conflict of interest to the governors.
Unconvinced: Employment Judge Stephen Heath
Mundy-Castle’s unapproved spending at the school led to an Education and Skills Funding Agency sanction.
In his ruling, Judge Heath wrote: “When we look at the combination of this persistent lack of transparency coupled with actual financial impropriety, we find that dismissal was an appropriate sanction.”
Sources with links to Woodcote School have told Inside Croydon that they believe that Mundy-Castle’s contracted position as chair of MOPAC’s ERG is “now completely untenable”.
They said, “The school and the governors have had to endure almost four years of incredible strains and pressures, plus the huge legal costs in defending themselves against Mr Mundy-Castle’s baseless claims.
“Given the judge finding that he had committed financial impropriety and repeatedly acted without transparency, it is hard to see how he can continue with any credibility or public confidence to hold an important role overseeing transparency, trust and confidence in the Met Police.
“His position is now completely untenable.”
Inside Croydon today asked Mundy-Castle if, given the judge’s findings, he would resign as chair of MOPAC’s ERG.
Mundy-Castle did not answer the question.
Instead, he cut and paste another social media posting, which he published yesterday – a month since he himself had received the Tribunal’s verdict.
According to Mundy-Castle, the Employment Tribunal, Judge Heath and two lay members, after 10 days’ of hearings and poring through copious files of evidence, got it all wrong.
“The decision was clearly and demonstrably wrong,” said Mundy-Castle, who had failed to prove that it was wrong when he and his barrister were at the Tribunal.
Under pressure: the strains of the Mundy-Castle case have been felt by staff, pupils and governors at Woodcote High for four years
Mundy-Castle said that he is “presently considering my legal options”. There are limited options for appeal at Employment Tribunals, requiring proof that the ruling had made an error on a point of law.
Despite the Tribunal having dismissed his case, Mundy-Castle still claims, “The real reasons I was dismissed were the unlawful activities that I whistleblew about and racism.”
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I don’t know which is worse. His refusal to acknowledge the reasons for his fair and square defeat, or his attempt to mislead the public about what really happened and why. Either way, he shouldn’t have any role in MOPAC anymore. His continued involvement risks damaging its reputation