Teacher who defrauded school out of €3k in 'elaborate hoax' struck off by Teaching Council

Seán McCárthaigh

A primary school teacher who defrauded three colleagues out of over €2,000 in “an elaborate hoax” and failed to repay a €1,000 loan from her school’s board of management has been struck off from the register of teachers.

An inquiry panel of the Teaching Council also directed that the teacher cannot apply to be reinstated to the register for a minimum of five years at a sanction hearing on Thursday.

The teacher, who cannot be named by direction of the three-person panel, did not attend the fitness-to-teach inquiry and was not legally represented.

The panel found the teacher, who is in her early 30s, guilty of professional misconduct and in breach of the Code of Professional Conduct for Teachers in relation to four out of five allegations against her.

The chairperson of the inquiry, Paul Moroney, said the panel had concluded that the findings were “fundamentally incompatible” with the teacher remaining on the Register of Teachers.

Mr Moroney said the level of dishonesty involved in the deception of three of her teaching colleagues was “disgraceful and dishonourable” and involved exploitation by inducing them to part with significant sums of money for various goods, including Christmas presents for their children.

He also claimed she had failed to demonstrate any insight into her misconduct.

“There remains a disturbing absence of any empathy for her victims or any understanding of the nature and extent of her wrongdoing,” he added.

The findings related to the teacher dishonestly obtaining sums of €375 and €545 via Revolut from two special needs assistants in October 2021 at the school in the east of the country where she taught.

The payments were made in exchange for discounted Apple products which were never received.

It was also proven that she had similarly obtained €1,102 by deception from a teacher at her school in September 2021.

The panel separately found that the teacher had failed to repay a loan of approximately €1,000 obtained from her school’s board of management in September 2021 as an advance on her salary, despite repeated requests for repayment.

The panel also deemed an allegation that the teacher had driven off from an Applegreen service station on the M1 on September 22, 2021 without paying for €15 of fuel had been proven but found that it did not constitute professional misconduct or a breach of the profession’s code of conduct.

The findings were made on the basis of evidence of several witnesses from the school and Garda evidence from related criminal proceedings for which the teacher received the Probation Act and was spared a criminal conviction.

Mr Moroney described the deception by the teacher as “elaborate and carefully planned.”

He said she had persisted with the hoax with detailed and apparently credible explanations for delays in providing the goods which were “entirely untrue.”

“The nature and extent of the deviousness was a fundamental betrayal of the trust that normally exists between teachers and their colleagues,” said Mr Moroney.

He claimed the failure to repay the loan to the school’s board of management had deprived its students of the money and the deception involved was “elaborate and persistent.”

Mr Moroney said the panel had sought a fair and appropriate sanction which would protect the public and maintain trust and confidence in teachers and the way they were regulated.

However, he said the elaborate and sophisticated nature of the deception, which had involved the preparation of price lists, fake documents from suppliers and references to couriers with delivery dates, was “disturbing.”

He said the teacher’s actions “pointed to a complete lack of empathy for her victims and their families” as well as showing no appreciation for depriving students of school funds.

The panel noted the money taken from her colleagues had been repaid by the time she appeared in court in September 2022 after which she resigned from her teaching post.

However, she has only repaid €50 of the sum owed to the board of management.

Solicitor for the Teaching Council, James Roche, told the panel that the teacher had consented for the sanction hearing to proceed in her absence as she was attending a wedding abroad.

Mr Roche acknowledged that while the findings against the teacher were serious, they were “not at the extreme upper end.”

The inquiry heard that the teacher, who had amassed €82,000 worth of debt, claimed she had been clear of her gambling addiction for the past two years and had not got into any trouble since.

In correspondence with the Teaching Council, the teacher claimed she should be given a second chance by her professional body as she had been given one by a judge.

She wrote: “Numerous gambling addicts in the country get a second chance and I believe I deserve one.”

The teacher asked the inquiry panel to take into consideration that she had suffered several personal hardships including illness of both her parents and the death of her father in 2020.

She also had other family bereavements including two relatives who were killed on the roads and had experienced a burglary in her home by two individuals she subsequently discovered were convicted murderers.

Although the teacher had indicated a wish to stay teaching, she also accepted that she probably would not work in the profession again.

She claimed she had intended to get the items that she had promised but had “dug a hole” with her gambling.

Her counsellor informed the Teaching Council that her gambling was a coping mechanism for the multiple losses she had encountered but she had worked to overcome her addiction and it would be “appalling” if she lost her ability to teach due to a mental illness.

However, Mr Moroney said no independent expert report or evidence had been received about the teacher’s health issues and the panel were not persuaded she had any relevant health issue now or previously which would mitigate the sanction.

He said it was striking that she had made only fleeting references to being embarrassed and apologising for her actions in the course of extensive written communications with the Teaching Council over several years.

Mr Moroney said the panel could not say with any confidence when, if ever, it might be appropriate to restore the teacher’s name to the register but it had concluded she could not reapply for a period of five years.

The ruling will need to be ratified by the High Court to formally take effect.