A PE teacher who tried to claim nearly £50,000 in insurance over a fake burglary has been banned from teaching after hiding the conviction from her school. Dipti Patel, who taught PE at Manchester Academy, in Moss Side, made the ‘entirely fraudulent’ insurance claim after reporting a ‘contrived burglary’ at her family home, a professional conduct panel heard.
She was convicted of the offence at St Albans Crown Court in September 2020 and handed a nine-month suspended prison sentence - as well as being ordered to carry out 120 hours unpaid work and 10 rehabilitation activity days. The 37-year-old had pleaded guilty on the basis that she did not know of the contrived burglary and played no part in it - her role in the fraud was 'exaggerating the claim', something she ‘regretted’.
Mrs Patel disclosed her guilty plea to the school soon after, but had taken leave for the court appearance on the pretext it was to take her child to a medical appointment. She also failed to notify the school after she was interviewed under police caution in October 2019 and appeared at a magistrates court in August 2020.
