A FORMER director of Mowbray College has appeared in the Supreme Court over his role in running the school before it collapsed last year.
The court heard the school, which had campuses at Caroline Springs and Melton, reported an ‘‘operating deficiency’’ of $779,000 in 2008 but still proceeded with a joint venture with an international school in China.
Former director Anthony Keirsten-Wakefield told the public examination he had believed the school would recoup that money in the following year. But Mr Keirsten-Wakefield said the school was unable to overcome the debt in 2009. ‘‘It was still having financial difficulties,’’ he said.
He was a director of the college board and two companies set up to oversee the Chinese venture.
Mr Keirsten-Wakefield visited the site of the proposed school in Ningbo in 2008 and found it to be run down.
‘‘I think there were more questions raised by the answers given about how it was going to operate,’’ he said.
In a letter last year, liquidator Jim Downey said the school might have been insolvent since 2007.
About 1200 students and 200 staff were told in June last year that the school would close within days.
Former directors John Ralph Wallace and Kevin Raymond Scott Yates have also been summonsed to appear in court.
The matter continues before associate justice Rodney Randall.
