A former soldier claims that City Hall froze him out of a new bootcamp scheme for troubled children.
American Herman “Coach” Lyken ran the camps for Ray Lewis, the Mayor’s mentoring czar, but said Mr Lewis has not acknowledged his help since they parted company.
The men appeared together on the 2010 Channel 4 programme Who Knows Best, in which Mr Lyken put a jobseeker through an assault course.
He said: “The Mayor’s Office haven’t given me a penny and it’s unfair, I want some recognition for what I have contributed to Boris Johnson’s plan.”
Last week, the Mayor announced £1.6 million for “leadership clubs”. City Hall said 69 charities applied for grants to run the clubs at about 40 schools.
The winners were Ark, City Year London, Shine in Secondaries and Mr Lewis’s EastSide Young Leaders Academy. Mr Lyken, 49, who served in the army of Guyana where he was born, wants funding for his Eagles Leadership Training Academy and says he was not made aware he could tender for grants.
Teachers at Oasis Academy in Croydon, where Mr Lyken mentors two year groups, credit him with a 70 per cent improvement in behaviour.
Nursery worker Shonelle Benjamin, 32, said her son, Capre, 12, was “not in a good place” when he started but after a year is “a different child”.
