A debt-ridden teacher who stole money his pupils gave him for school trips has been banned from the classroom for five years.
Andrew Cowey lied about the true cost of trips at Dene Community School in Peterlee, County Durham, took students money and pocketed the cash for himself, a disciplinary panel heard.
The 28-year-old has now been handed a five-year teaching ban after the panel found he had acted dishonestly.
Cowey had been employed at the Peterlee school since 2012, and in 2016-17, accepted money from students for a trip to the theatre.
A professional misconduct panel heard he falsely recorded some pupils as either attending for free or receiving funding from the Friends of Dene
charity.
Cowey then kept the childrens money for himself and deleted the trips funding spreadsheets from the schools electronic systems in order to prevent others from accessing the true account as to which pupils had paid money, a report of the hearing said.
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The part-time Scout leader also tried to cover his tracks by amending letters to pupils parents regarding the cost of one of the school trips in
an attempt to cover up the amount of money missing from the school.
The panel heard that in April 2017 Cowey was told by the headteacher not to take any more money from students for trips.
But he went on to take £170 from one pupil and then provided an untrue explanation as to why he had taken this money.
A report of the hearing said that Cowey pleaded guilty to theft at Durham Crown Court on December 20, 2017, in respect of the funds taken for the school trips. He was sentenced to a community order, curfew requirement and ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation.
Ruling that Cowey should be banned from teaching for five years, Alan Meyrick, of the Teaching Regulation Agency, said he had taken into account his remorse.
His report said: The panel also noted that he had pleaded guilty before Durham Crown Court and, in his written statement, had indicated some
remorse including that he had been disgusted by his behaviour, which had arisen from the debt in which he had found himself.
But he added: In my view, it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.
Although he has shown some remorse, Mr Coweys behaviour was deliberate and sustained over a period of time.
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In addition one proven allegation makes clear that you took approximately £170 from a pupil for the London trip on or around 25 April 2017 despite having been told that you must not collect such trip monies.
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