Teaching hopeful had been sentenced for kidnap offence

SEX offenders, drug dealers and violent criminals are among those in west London applying to be teachers.

Among the worrying convictions noted by prospective applicants on their forms was a person from the Harrow postcode who had been previously sentenced for kidnapping.

There were also convictions for causing grievous bodily harm in south west London, supplying cocaine and heroin and even one for wilfully abandoning or exposing a child to harm in the W postcode. The information, revealed through the Disclosure and Barring Service for teaching applications, also found minor offences adding up to 59 previous convictions for shoplifting, 46 for drink driving and 23 for assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Also among the bad behaviour was a previous conviction for being drunk in charge of a child, harbouring an escaped prisoner and taking a banned item into a prison,

Some had even been sentenced for assisting unlawful immigration into the EU.

A total of 606 previous convictions from across the area in 2014/15 were found noted among 13,000 applications, according to figures revealed following a Freedom of Information request.

The figures do not show if applicants were hired, as employers have discretion over whether to disregard some more minor offences.