Care worker struck off for lying about needing to self-isolate

A CARE worker was struck off for pretending that she needed to self-isolate due to Covid and then flying off on holiday to Spain.

Alisha Masters, 24, lied that she had to stay at home because she had been in contact with someone who tested positive for the virus.

But a misconduct panel heard she instead boarded a flight abroad for a sunshine trip to Spain – and had lied to managers about where she was.

The hearing was told that this wasn’t Ms Masters’ first breach of lockdown rules, having previously been caught partying with friends at the height of the pandemic.

Ms Masters, from the Rhondda, was a domiciliary care worker helping to look after vulnerable people at their homes across the south of Wales.

A Social Care Wales statement said: “In May 2020 Alisha Masters went to a social gathering in breach of the coronavirus regulations in Wales at that time and then lied about it to her manager. Four months later, in September 2020, Ms Masters falsely told her manager she’d been in contact with someone who had tested positive for Covid-19, giving the impression she needed to self-isolate. She then travelled to Spain for a holiday and lied to her manager about her whereabouts during that period.”

Ms Masters admitted the allegations as she fought to save her job and said it was the “biggest mistake” she had ever made.

A disciplinary panel ruled her fitness to practise was impaired due to serious misconduct and struck her from the social care register.

In a ruling, the panel told her: “You have admitted to breaching the regulations put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 on two occasions.

“On the second occasion you tried to conceal the fact that you had travelled to Spain by creating quite elaborate false accounts. You had opportunities to tell the truth and did not take them. Instead you dug a deeper hole by telling another lie to your employer. This could have exposed individuals who are vulnerable to serious illness to greater risk of infection. This was repeated misconduct rather than a ‘one-off’ incident. Your dishonesty was repeated and became more sophisticated when your original account was challenged. We cannot be confident that if you were in a similar position in the future you would not behave in the same way. Your integrity is, therefore, still in doubt.”

Ms Masters can appeal to the Care Standards Tribunal within 28 days.