A TEACHER who defrauded a high school to the estimated value of between £15,000 and £16,000 while having a cocaine addiction has been banned indefinitely.

An allegation was made against James Garner, who worked as a technology teacher at St Mary's Catholic High School in Astley in May 2016, that he was stealing money from his place of work.

The Manchester Road school suspended him before an internal investigation took place. This was followed by a Wigan Council probe, which led to his resignation.

The council passed the case on to the police with Garner sentenced at Bolton Crown Court last December for fraud by misrepresentation.

He was given a suspended sentence of 10 months, and required to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and 10 hours of rehabilitation activity.

In sentencing, Judge Clayson said: "You were permitted to purchase and indeed required to purchase on your own behalf equipment for the school, to provide the appropriate receipts and reclaim the equivalent amount of money.

"You were obviously in a position of trust and by a number of different fraudulent means you effectively stole money from the school.

"You created fraudulent receipts by inflating figures, creating fictitious transactions and ordering lower specification equipment than was appropriate. The total value of the fraud is something in the region of £15,000 to £16,000.

"When the police got hold of the matter you admitted it pretty quickly and explained that you were in very substantial debt due to a long-standing addiction to cocaine."

After the conviction, St Mary's notified the Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) about the case and a professional conduct panel from the body held a hearing to decide about Garner's future in education.

The 27-year-old did not attend the hearing.

The report said: "Mr Garner's conduct involved serious dishonesty and fraud and amounted to a sustained and serious breach of trust. This was calculated fraud and Mr Garner's actions were deliberate.

"There was no evidence to suggest that the teacher was acting under duress, and in fact the panel found the teacher’s actions to be intentional and pre-meditated.

"The panel noted that no references had been provided from any colleagues to attest to Mr Garner's abilities as a teacher.

In defence of the teacher, the report states: "Mr Garner pleaded guilty to the offence and was noted to have shown regret and remorse to the crown court.

"In his written representations dated July 1, 2018, he admitted the allegation and that it constituted a conviction for a relevant offence. Mr Garner accepted and apologised for the impact his conviction had on him and his family.

"However, the panel was concerned that Mr Garner had not shown sufficient insight into the damage that the behaviour that led to the conviction could have caused to the school, colleagues, children and the teaching profession.

"Mr Garner's personal circumstances appeared to have been challenging but the panel had no evidence of the treatment he had sought or received for his longstanding addiction to a class A drug, namely, cocaine."

The panel passed the case over to Dawn Dandy, a decision-maker for the Secretary of State for Education and recommended that a prohibition order without a review should be made.

Ms Dandy concluded: "I am in agreement with the panel and believe no review period reflects the seriousness of the findings and is a proportionate period to achieve the aim of maintaining public confidence in the profession.

"This means that Mr James Garner is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England.

"Furthermore, in view of the seriousness of the allegation found proved against him, I have decided that Mr Garner shall not be entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach."

Garner can appeal to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days of the date he was given the notice.