Wey Education losses rise amid High Court legal row with former boss

A bitter court case against its former chief executive, who was chairman of Ofsted for four years, caused losses to spiral last year at AIM-listed online education provider Wey Education.

The High Court ruled in July that Zenna Atkins had “breached her duty of loyalty” and “acted to further her own interests” at Wey’s expense by making allegations of fraud to the Department for Education.

The company was awarded £38,000 in damages.

Wey, which runs the UK’s only online fee-paying secondary school, today revealed it made a pre-tax loss of £807,000 in the year ended August, growing from £360,000 the year before.

Since then, Atkins, who was boss between 2010 and 2013, has paid £100,000 in costs and £98,000 held in security has been returned to Wey.

Atkins made headlines last year after boasting on Facebook about offering to perform a sex act on “a very handsome man”, which enraged parents at a Brighton school where she was chair of governors. Shares rose 5% to 4.45p.