In our last post about Preece, TBI’s bogan Machiavelli, we showed a photo of him handing out certificates at TBI Bali. Let’s use that as the starting point for the second part of this update. Specifically, let’s start with this question: How did we know that he was now at TBI Bali in the first place?

In answering this question, allow me to be blunt: Luke Preece was widely disliked and even detested in TBI, so many people are happy to spill the beans about his latest exploits. Most people in the company are tight-lipped about management, knowing them to be petty, vindictive and authoritarian, but there are more than  a few who are ready to vent their spleen about this TEFL charlatan, Preece.

Sometime last year, our latest TBI informant told us that TBI was in a state of complete turmoil. Mariam Kartikatresni, Luke Preece’s long-time accomplice and nemesis, had finally been forced out of the company forever. Her so-called Reign of Error had finally come to an end, a decade of incompetence, cronyism and corruption having driven TBI into the ditch. Pak Reza and Ibu Ning, a pair of corrupt cronies, were back in complete control of the company and Mariam had been shown the door.

We checked out this information online and found that Mariam, ever a self-promoting narcissist of pathological proportions, was all over the Internet engaged in self-promotion of her new project, recruiting students for UTS (University of Technology, Sydney). Moreover, Lilies Agustin, Preece’s crony and self-confessed mistress, had been shown the door as well. She was also working with Mariam in her new role. This made a lot of sense as Ibu Ning had always thought that Lilies was pure trash who needed to show less cleavage and work harder. Without Mariam to protect her, Lilies was always likely to run afoul of Ning.

From Mariam to Luke, Her Former Conspirator

The same person who informed us that the wretched Mariam had finally been shown the door also told us that Luke’s fortunes in the company had dimmed. This source told us that Preece no longer darkened the doors of TBI Bandung and TBI Jakarta. The man who had once stirred trouble at every school in Bandung and Jakarta had now been told to stay clear. He hadn’t been seen there in months. The man who had once meddled in a dozen different Franchise schools was now never to be seen. He had been told that he could keep an important-sounding title but he had been told to stay clear of the schools where he had wreaked so much havoc. However, he knew where all the TBI skeletons were buried, so he had been offered a consolation prize- he would get to run TBI Bali.

Wanting to check if this informant was accurate, we looked on the TBI Bali website to look for evidence. We knew that Preece was an incredibly vain and narcissistic man who had often placed his own photo on TBI banners and pamphlets in the past. (Sociopaths often have a dark stain of narcissistic self-regard in their characters). Sure enough, Preece was still taking advantage of his role as manager at TBI schools to gratify his own ego. There were pictures of the uneducated Preece handing out certificates to ‘graduates’ of TBI courses. The old leopard hadn’t changed his spots. He still loved to see his image all over TBI promotional materials, boosting his monstrous ego. We had yet more proof that our new informant knew what he/she was talking about..