'£125,000 for one GCSE': Private school wins website ruling against angry father
A father who sued a £25,000-a-year private school after his son left with only one GCSE has been told to hand over a scathing website bearing the institution's name.
Scott Craddock, of Ironstone Road, Burntwood, was livid when his son David left Rocester's Abbotsholme School with the solitary qualification in August 2015.
He launched legal proceedings last year and backed up his complaint with a website at an address strikingly similar to that used by the school.
The site, www.abbotsholmeschool.co.uk, contains a header stating 'Scott Craddock Vs Abbotsholme School – £125,000 for ONE GCSE!"
Beneath that the webpage includes a comparison of the school's GCSE results in 2014 and 2015.
The figures claim the numbers of A* and A grades fell, while the number of D, E, F and G grades increased, as did B and C results.
But because Mr Craddock used a web address so similar to the school's name and own website address – www.abbotsholme.co.uk – Abbotsholme complained.
He has now been ordered to give up the webpage.
Patricia Jones, an independent expert from internet watchdog, Nominet, said the domain name should be transferred to the school.
"Abbotsholme School has, to my reasonable satisfaction, shown rights in respect of a name or mark which is identical or similar to the domain name," she said.
"The school has, to my reasonable satisfaction, shown that the domain name www.abbotsholmeschool.co.uk is an abusive registration."
Retired Mr Craddock told the Express & Star of his frustration at his son's plight last year.
He said his son was 'distraught' at his results and accused the school of wasting five years of his life.
He drove lorries from the UK to the Middle East for 10 years to fund David's education, and expected him to leave with around six GCSEs.
Speaking in August, Mr Craddock said: "His progress reports are all fine.
"Then he did his mocks, which were pretty abysmal.
"But he was on for six GCSEs, which is about what his old man got.
"I thought 'you can't breed lamb off a lion' and that's what he was going to get. English and maths – he was on course for those. We were told by the English teacher, B/C. He got an E. David got Ds, Es and one C. He was distraught."
The school declined to comment on an 'individual case' at the time and instead pointed to their overall results.
Abbotsholme was contacted again yesterday by the Express & Star but did not reply.
