A school’s former governor has come out in support of calls for a school’s financial irregularities to be investigated.

Last week, the Wimbledon Guardian revealed that Gary Savage, a resident caretaker at Stanford Primary School, Norbury, was the subject of criminal and council investigations for mishandling the school’s funds, but was reinstated after being cleared.

No other staff members have faced similar disciplinary action for £190,000 that was paid to a builder who admitted to police he produced fake invoices.

The builder, Tony Nicholls of Complete Care and Property Maintenance, told Merton police he faked invoices to make it look like Stanford had sought tenders from other building companies before awarding him 68 contracts in a row between 2007 and 2009.

But this week, a former governor, who sat on the school’s finance committee twice, said she could not believe Mr Savage was accused of wrongdoing.

Audrey King, who lives in Malvern Close, Mitcham, said: “I always found Gary to be reliable, helpful and loyal. He worked hard for the school over many years.

“Surely the authority and the police should be continuing their investigation to trace how the irregular payments occurred, for example, who opened the tenders, who authorised the orders and who signed the cheques.”

But this week, Merton Council again rejected calls for a public investigation, made by Mitcham and Morden’s MP, Siobhain McDonagh and the council’s education policy head, Councillor Peter Walker.

Mr Savage’s union representative, Rosemary McLoughlin, said she had arranged a meeting with Coun Walker on Friday to discuss the case further.

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