Another scamming bus operator at Carenne

Carenne Gate can reveal that the bus operator who was falsely claiming for taking a Carenne Support director's son home to Oberon instead of to Kelso where he had been taken, Dick Spears has been performing another scam for the best part of 18 months.

Some 18 months ago, when another student was allocated to his Oberon district bus run, Mr Spears re-negotiated his contract with the Department of Education and Communities (then the Department of Education and Training) so he could purchase a larger vehicle. He told the then manager of Special Transport, Gail Vasic that he needed a larger vehicle and that his expenses (such as fuel) would go up because he had to use a different vehicle.

Despite claiming this to the department, Mr Spears uses his new vehicle only once or twice per week, using his old Ford Spectron van the rest of the time, despite being paid by the department to use his other vehicle.

Besides scamming the department, Mr Spears' Ford Spectron is unroadworthy and full of rust according to parents. One parent told Carenne Gate "I have concerns about him using that old bus of his, it has rust everywhere, what happens if he hits something, my son is dead."

The parent claims to have made a complaint about the vehicle to Neil Moon, principal of the Carenne Special School only for nothing to be done about it. "As usual with Mr Moon, nothing gets done, I'm treated like an idiot by him," said the parent.

It's time that the department, Mr Spears and Mr Moon realise that the money going to these operators belongs to the NSW taxpayer and that we expect a decent level of service for disabled student transport, not for them to be riding around in deathtraps like Mr Spears' Spectron.