School worker banned for not revealing stalking charge

A LEARNING support worker has been banned from school after failing to tell his employers he had been charged with stalking.

Leon Bansal has been made the subject of a Prohibition Order by the Education Workforce Council and will not be allowed to reapply for registration for two years.

A fitness to practice committee heard this week that Rhondda Cynon Taf Council received an anonymous letter saying the writer “could not believe [Bansal] was still working with kids”.

Bansal started working for the council in 2009 as a youth worker, before going on to co-ordinate sporting activities for young people.

Bansal was accused of failing to inform his employer over a 21-month period that he had been cautioned by Dyfed-Powys Police in February 2015 for possessing Class A drugs.

He faced an allegation of not telling his employers between December 2016 and April last year that he had been charged with stalking and summoned to court.

Asked why he did not tell his line manager, Bansal said it “did not cross his mind”.

Bansal was sentenced on June 1 last year at Merthyr Tydfil Magistrates’ Court to 10 weeks in prison, suspended for 12 months, for stalking.

The charge related to the period between November 28, 2016, and December 9, 2016. He was also ordered to carry out 100 hours of unpaid work and a five-year restraining order was imposed.

The committee found the allegations proven and found his actions were dishonest, demonstrated a lack of integrity and breached council policy.

The committee imposed a Prohibition Order on his registration and Bansal may not reapply to the Register of Education Practitioners before December 2020.