THE head and former headteacher of Mansfield High School, Brierfield, said to have inflated pupil numbers to get more cash, have appeared at Burnley Crown Court.
Ernest Pickup, 60, of Whalley Road, Wilpshire, and Alan Duckworth, 48, of Patterdale Close, Reedley, are accused of conspiring between 1994 and 1997, at Brierfield, to defraud the Lancashire Education Authority in relation to the overstating of pupil numbers in order to falsely increase the school funding.
Pickup is head of the school and his co-defendant is the school's former head.
The allegation was not put to the men and the preliminary hearing was transferred to be listed next Monday, July 17, at Manchester Crown Court, where Pickup is due to stand trial with two others accused of a separate conspiracy charge. Duckworth is not accused of that allegation. Both were unconditionally bailed.
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