If they couldn't - is that because their line of work is indistinguishable from bullshit? - I think you may have hit the nail on the head there.
His 'specialism' is the experience of Black academics in higher education.
The woman interviewing him - Hilary Cremin - has a specialism in 'peace and conflict' in schools.
Given that Hilary Cremin is also a pseudo-academic spouting a load of hippy shit and calling it academic research, she is hardly best placed to judge another fraud when she sees one.
However, there is also the reality that she wouldn't know anything about what Arday was 'researching' because it's not in her line of 'specialism' at all.
So I can see how he might have blagged his way past panels in interviews if he was being interviewed by people with no knowledge of his very narrow field of 'research' - if you haven't read widely in the 'literature' being produced by 'academics' in this area, then you won't be able to challenge or critically evaluate what someone is saying in an interview setting.
That being said, a cursory look at his published output would tell you he didn't have a robust enough research background to justify being given such a prestigious post, so I really can't see how anyone involved in hiring Arday is going to get out of this with their reputation intact.
Furthermore, I would be very, very sceptical if someone applied to a post after having jumped ship very quickly from ALL of their previous academic positions. He barely stayed 18 months anywhere. Very unusual in a profession where a permanent job is highly sought after, especially for someone so early in their career. I can't believe this didn't raise any eyebrows or prompt any concerns.
Reminds me of a former colleague (pre teaching) who was a 'change consultant' for fundraising departments in charities. He would breeze in on very highly paid temporary consulting contracts, make all sorts of promises about how he would turn things around and bring in the big bucks, talk endlessly about all his contacts and connections, and then leave after 12 months with another prestigious organisation on his CV, without having achieved anything of note - because the reality is, it takes much longer than a year to see the results of fundraising efforts. None of the applications he made for the charity I was working for came off - we got absolutely zero income from his involvement. However, by the time we knew that, he was already 6 months into his next job. An absolute charlatan - and yet he's still at it, a decade later, because he always leaves before he's found out.