A Liverpool teacher convicted of keeping tens of thousands of pounds paid to her in error and failing to notify her former employer has been banned from the classroom.
Danielle Auerbach-Byrne, 53, kept hold of more than £34,000 paid to her more than a year after she left her role as a science teacher at Rainhill High School in August 2017. Miss Auerbach-Byrne did not inform her employer, St Helens Council, and assumed someone would notice the clerical error that led to the payment “and do something about it.”
A Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) hearing was told during this time, Miss Auerbach-Byrne effectively doubled her income. She has now been banned indefinitely from teaching.
READ MORE: Gun found in JD Sports bag along with meat cleaver and knuckledusters
Miss Auerbach-Byrne, who had most recently been working at North Liverpool Academy, was convicted by magistrates of dishonestly retaining a wrongful credit in December 2020 and received a suspended sentence. The TRA said she was guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute.
She had breached teacher's standards, the three-person panel found. In a sanction decision published by the TRA, it said a three-person panel considered “public confidence in the profession could be seriously weakened if conduct such as that found against Ms Auerbach-Byrne was not treated with the utmost seriousness when regulating the conduct of the profession.”
It added there was no evidence her actions were not deliberate, that Miss Auerbach-Byrne was acting “under extreme duress” and the panel were concerned she had shown “very little insight into her conduct and the circumstances surrounding her conviction, and that little remorse was demonstrated.” It was determined, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, “it is necessary to impose a prohibition order in order to maintain public confidence in the profession.”
The decision report said: “This means that Ms Danielle Auerbach-Byrne is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. She may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside, but not until 22 October 2026, 4 years from the date of this order at the earliest.”
This is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed. If Miss Auerbach-Byrne seeks to apply, a panel will meet to consider whether the prohibition order should be set aside. Without a successful application, she remains prohibited from teaching indefinitely but can appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court.
Get the top stories straight to your inbox by signing up to our what's on newsletter
READ NEXT:
Couple feel 'ripped off' after spending £1,000 to stay in 'dingy' hotel room
'Billy Whizz' gang with connections to Dubai, India and Iran netted £1million
Gun found in JD Sports bag along with meat cleaver and knuckledusters
Suspect named after man attacked with weapon
Family had guns stolen from army and lived high life from heroin and crack ring
