Faked everything but thinks he can stay on

Stuff reports:

A Palmerston North student union president has admitted to lying about his background, making up his name, purporting to be a former policeman and claiming fake university qualifications.

Association of Students at UCOL (AS@U) president Danny Goodman featured in a Manawatu Standard profile last week following his appointment as the polytechnic’s new student leader.

Goodman detailed his aims for the year and claimed his past experiences included 15 years in the police force – as a general duties officer in Kings Cross, Sydney, time with the New South Wales water police and as a criminal profiler for the New York police department.

He said he was from Wellington, spent some of his childhood in Australia, studied an associate degree in policing practice at Charles Sturt University and an honours degree in applied science from the University of New South Wales.

So what part of this was true?

Goodman said yesterday his real name is Darryl Newport, he was born in Motueka, has never lived in Australia and he made up the persona of “Danny Goodman” years ago. He said the “elaborate” tale quickly escalated and he regretted making it up, apologising to people affected by his deceit.

“This is a non-event; I’ve been caught out on a lie,” he said.

A non-event? You make up a fake persona??

Goodman said he had never campaigned on his fake background or included it on CVs and hoped to keep his position as president of AS@U because he felt his fabrication did not affect his ability to serve students.

You are not the person you claimed to be. Even your name is a lie. Of course you can not remain President. You have no credibility.

UCOL spokeswoman Christine Beech said Goodman is not a staff member, he has not used his claims for educational gains, and the polytechnic has no responsibility regarding his employment and would not be looking into it any further.

They probably fund the organisation though. Goodman is basically a fraudster. Does UCOL think paying money to an organisation headed by a fraudster is the best use of student fees?

Goodman contacted the Manawatu Standard after the profile was published to request corrections be made to some of the information he had fabricated, including the length of time he had worked with the New South Wales police.

This shows the extent of his pathological lying. He proactively went to the media to get them to correct fabricated information.

UPDATE: He has resigned