A headteacher who used school funds to pay for his wife to accompany him on overseas trips to New Zealand, Italy and the United States has been banned from the profession.

Simon Feasey also failed to ensure checks were carried out when hiring a member of staff with criminal convictions who went on to steal £1,200 from his school.

A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) report reveals that Mr Feasey has been banned from teaching after being found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.

Mr Feasey, 57, had been head of Bader Primary School in Thornaby, near Stockton-on-Tees in the North East of England.

The headteacher was found to have used school funds inappropriately by paying for unnecessary trips and by using the school credit card to pay for family members’ costs on overseas travel.

He paid the school £5,500 after an investigation into his spending was launched.

However, the TRA panel found that “it was reasonable to infer that, had no investigation taken place, Mr Feasey would not have paid this money back to the school”.

His use of the school funds included: 

• Flights for him and his wife to Amsterdam in July 2014 for a pre-visit trip, which the TRA panel ruled unnecessary as two other teachers had already visited the city a week earlier;
• Hotel accommodation at the Radisson Blu Hotel, in Amsterdam, for himself, his wife and two children along with tickets for his family to visit the Van Gogh Museum and the Anne Frank Museum;
• Around £2,000 spent on his wife’s flights and hotel accommodation in London and Sorrento for a pre-visit trip to Italy in October 2015;
• He spent £3,987.49 for him and his wife to travel to the US National Visible Learning Conference in Washington DC, where he had been invited to speak. This included upgrading their flight. He said £1,909.36 was spent on his wife’s costs;
• Paying for his travel, and both his and his wife’s accommodation, for a visit to a Visible Learning exemplar school in New Zealand, which the panel ruled unnecessary.
   

The TRA panel ruled that the trips to both Amsterdam and New Zealand had been unnecessary as other members of school staff had already carried out visits.

Regarding each of the four trips, it found that there was no justification to have paid for Mr Feasey’s wife’s costs using school funds.

The TRA panel report says that Mr Feasey had “professed to be shocked” when he discovered he had used the school’s credit card to book two rooms at the Raddison Blu Hotel in Amsterdam.

However, the panel said it was “simply not believable” that he did not realise that he was using the school’s credit card.

The report says that, on balance, the panel accepted Mr Feasey’s indication that neither his wife nor children were aware that he was misusing school funds in the way that he did.

Safeguarding ‘failure’

The TRA panel also found that Mr Feasey failed to adhere to safeguarding procedures by failing to ensure background checks were made when hiring a member of staff.

Mr Feasey said that the person in question had confided in him that he had a previous conviction for assault.

However, when a full DBS check was carried out, after the person had been in post for several months, it showed he had previous convictions for driving offences and battery, and had been cautioned for an offence of dishonesty which had led to him losing his previous job.

The member of staff was then found to have stolen £1,200 from the school and was dismissed.

The TRA panel also found that Mr Feasey failed to manage school finances appropriately in that he allowed the same member of staff to use the school’s credit card to make purchases.

Mr Feasey admitted all of these allegations and accepted that his conduct using school funds lacked integrity. However, he denied that he had acted dishonestly.

The TRA panel ruled that he had acted dishonestly and that “such dishonest conduct had extended over a number of years”.

Mr Feasey also rejected an allegation that he had allowed a member of staff to claim unreasonable overtime payments. This allegation was found to be not proven by the TRA panel.

In mitigation, the panel heard evidence that Mr Feasey was “a caring educationalist who has much to offer the teaching profession”, and it recognised that he was “extremely hard-working”.

The report adds: “It may have been the case that he had overextended his commitments, although no doubt that could be said of many headteachers.

“He also had the added pressure of some difficult personal and family circumstances.”

The Department for Education accepted the TRA panel’s recommendation that Mr Feasey be banned from teaching.

He can apply for this order to be reviewed after five years.