Maths teacher caught with hundreds of stolen bank card details banned from the classroom
A decision was made to suspend a mathematics teacher who was caught with hundreds of stolen bank card information from the classroom.
Louis Ssekabira admitted he “planned to commit fraud” after police raided his home in 2020 and found 262 card details, 69 stolen online banking logins on his laptop, as well as more on two separate iPhones, a professional misconduct panel has heard.
Mr Ssekabira was teaching at Droitwich Spa High School in Worcestershire at the time, but moved to Bishop Challoner Catholic School in London when he received a caution in 2021.
A report into the Teaching Regulation Agency’s (TRA) misconduct hearing said the then maths teacher accepted a police caution for possession of fraudulent items but did not tell the school.
However, his behavior was later revealed when a police officer contacted the school. When asked to explain the warning to colleagues, he claimed he had bought the laptop from Gumtree and found the details inside, according to a witness statement.
He told teachers he was “pretty excited about it” and showed it to people, but did nothing about the details, the panel heard.
Mr Ssekabira reportedly told colleagues he knew he should have deleted the details but later did not, telling them he “grew up in bad company and was trying to get away from it all”.
The witness also said Mr Ssekabira did not tell the school about his warning because he “hoped it would all go away and no one would find out”.
But the panel found him guilty of “misconduct of a serious nature” and questioned the account he gave to colleagues, saying he did not explain why the stolen details were found on more than one device.
Many supporting accounts offered glowing accounts of Mr Ssekabira’s “excellent leadership and pastoral skills”, suggesting that he was “instrumental” in the transition from dysfunctional to Good with Exceptional characteristics in a school’s mathematics department.
But the board said his actions had “fundamentally undermined” trust in him and that “dishonesty of this seriousness is incompatible with acting as a role model for students”.
“For these reasons, the panel is satisfied that Mr Ssekabira’s conduct amounted to misconduct of a serious nature that fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession,” they added.
He was also banned from teaching for at least five years while the decision was to be reviewed.
“While there was evidence that Mr Ssekabira was capable of making a valuable contribution to the teaching profession in the future, the panel remained concerned about the extent to which Mr Ssekabira demonstrated insight into his actions, as evidenced by his failure to be fully transparent with his employer,” the report said. The statement was included.
