A teacher at Dene Community School in county Durham has been banned from teaching after stealing money given to him by pupils for school theatre trips.
Between July 2016 and April 2017, 28-year-old Andrew Cowey falsely recorded that pupils at the school had attended the trips for free or received funding from a charity, but he actually kept the money for himself.
To cover up the amount of money missing, Cowey deleted spreadsheets that contained information about school trip funding and amended letters that were sent home to parents.
In April 2017, the Head Teacher ordered Cowey not to take any more money for school trips, but the next day he took £170 from a pupil for a trip to London and gave a false explanation as to why he had taken it home.
Following a misconduct hearing, Cowey received a ban from teaching and in December 2017, he was convicted of theft after pleading guilty. He was ordered to pay £5,000 in compensation and given a 12-month community order.
