by Cam Lucadou-Wells
A former teacher at Marnebek School has been sentenced over faking his CV credentials to gain a promotion as well as a principal job at another school.
Rhett Travis Cullen Watts, 43, embellished his resume with false job experience and post-grad degrees before being promoted to assistant principal at the Cranbourne-based school in 2017.
He similarly faked his history when recruited as principal at Katandra-Berendale School in Ormond in 2018 and in applying to become principal at Frankston High School in 2020.
As a result, he was said to have been paid $697,747.63 in gross wages over four years. It was effectively a gross pay-rise of about $230,000 over that time.
He pleaded guilty at the Victorian County Court to a rolled-up charge of obtaining financial advantage by deception.
Watts’s CVs falsely listed a Master of Education (Special Education) qualification from University of Woolongong, a Master of Science at University of Southhampton and a near-completed Master of Business Administration at Griffith University.
He also falsely claimed to work as a Health and Physical Education teacher and implement a program for disengaged students at Karingal Park Secondary College in 2004.
Watts’s ruse “unravelled” when a former Karingal Park assistant principal, who was on a recruitment panel, had no recollection of him at the school, sentencing judge Andrew Palmer said on 25 July.
During an education department investigation, Watts conceded to “some typos and some information that should have been removed”.
He claimed a recruitment consultant had prepared the application and he didn’t properly check the contents.
In 2021, Watts took sick leave from his posting at Katandra School and resigned.
Said to be passionate about specialist-school education, Watts has since been banned from working in government schools.
He was now working in customer relations at Dan Murphy’s.
Judge Palmer said Watts was motivated by ego and a desire for attention, rather than greed.
He had no criminal priors and had shown indications of remorse.
Prosecutors agreed that a sentence of community corrections order was “in range”.
Watts was convicted and placed on a two-year CCO with 250 hours of unpaid work. He was ordered to pay back $178,749 to the education department.
