Responsible for educating and protecting children, teachers are pillars of the community and some of the most trusted people in society.
But a few have seriously missed the mark by committing heinous crimes that left them banned from the profession for life.
Drug smuggling, outrageously inflated CVs and sexual misconduct towards parents are just a few of the offenses carried out by teachers in British schools in recent years.
After two more were barred from the profession this month, MailOnline takes a look at some of the dodgiest acts carried out by teachers across the UK.
Teacher who tried to smuggle £17k of drugs into jail stashed inside legal letters
Vivienne Williams, a primary school teacher, posted a number of fake packages soaked in the Class B drug Spice that were destined for prisons in Nottingham, Wandsworth and Cardiff.
The bogus parcels were all disguised as legal documents and were sent from Williams’ home in Wembley while she was teaching children at Elsley Primary School.
Teacher Vivienne Williams posted a number of fake packages soaked in the Class B drug Spice, that were destined for prisons in Nottingham, Wandsworth and Cardiff
Williams was a teacher at Elsley Primary School, in Wembley, at the time of her crimes
But the crook’s £17,000 drugs ring was exposed by Nottingham Police after they intercepted some of the letters at HMP Lowdham Grange.
Williams was jailed for 30 months in October 2023, having pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to convey banned articles into prison, possession of articles for use in fraud, and a communications offence relating to the prison phone calls.
She was this month banned from the classroom for life, following a probe by the Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA).
Maths teacher who ‘joked’ about having sex with pupil’s mum
Michael Clark, 46, taught maths at Lyng Hall School in Coventry but left his job after a pupil complained about his behaviour in 2022.
A tribunal in Coventry heard he used homophobic slurs during lessons, had physical altercations with pupils and described himself as ‘f***ing untouchable’.
Mr Clark also made several sexual remarks about a pupil’s mother which the panel found him guilty of.
The vulgar comments included: ‘I do not need to w*** off, I will just get your mum to s*** me.’
Michael Clark started teaching at Lyng Hall School (pictured) in Coventry in 2009 but left his job after a pupil complained about his behaviour in 2022
When asked about the allegations during an internal investigation by the school, he did not deny them and said ‘if that’s what they’re saying then I must have’.
In another incident he said: ‘You are a p****, and not even the good kind like your mum has.’
The teacher also pressed his finger into the collarbone of one pupil so severely that the child fell to the floor, the tribunal heard.
The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) misconduct panel banned Mr Clark from teaching for at least the next four years, The Telegraph reported this month.
RE teacher who falsely claimed to be an Oxford don and ex-teammate of England rugby legend Will Carling
Paul Elliott, who worked at a £15,000-a-year private school, was banned from the classroom for life in 2022 after detectives were called in to investigate his stellar CV.
He had falsely claimed to be an Oxford don and an ex-teammate of England rugby legend Will Carling.
His extensive web of lies stretched back to 1988, it was discovered.
Among his bogus achievements was a claim that he represented ‘North’ in a famous rugby match against Australia during the Wallabies’ tour of the UK that year.
England captain Will Carling celebrates on the final whistle after England had beaten Australia in the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup Quarter Final
But a Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) panel found there was no mention of him in the match programme, while former England captain Carling also confirmed he had no recollection of Elliott playing or training.
His apparent rugby ‘career’ also included claims he played for the University of Oxford – where he said he was a Fellow and studied medicine – in the 1995 Varsity match, as well as being a pro for Wigan Warriors.
The master also exaggerated his academic and sporting positions at Liverpool Hope University, and £16,000 a year Churcher’s College, Hampshire, where he had worked but in a more junior capacity.
The panel was told Elliott had conned his way into a job at Yarm School in North Yorkshire in August 2018 as Head of Religion and Philosophy.
He was fired in October 2019, following an investigation into his employment history by the school which commissioned a report by a private detective agency.
Primary school teacher who smuggled girl, 14, into Britain to act as a ‘slave’
Ernestina Quainoo, a ‘God-loving’ teacher, was banned from classroom for life last year after it emerged she helped smuggle a 14-year-old African child into Britain to act as her ‘slave’.
She was struck off the teaching register after lying about her child trafficking conviction when she got her job in 2019.
Ernestina Quainoo was struck off the teaching register after lying about her child trafficking conviction
A court heard Mrs Quainoo, who moved to the UK from Ghana in 2004, and her husband Samuel smuggled the child into Britain with the promise of education and a job when she arrived
Details of her criminal past only came to light in December 2022, when a colleague was shown a newspaper report about her and informed her bosses.
In 2008, a court heard Mrs Quainoo, who moved to the UK from Ghana in 2004, and her husband Samuel smuggled the child into Britain with the promise of education and a job when she arrived.
But instead the disgraced teacher and her husband, then aged 59, forced the girl to cook and clean in the house for 18 months as well as babysit their two young sons.
It was said the couple stopped the teen going to school and making friends and dressed her in hand-me-downs, apart from once buying her T-shirts with ‘my other name is bitch’ printed on them.
She was never paid a penny and later told cops and social workers she was so desperate that she contemplated suicide.
Her ordeal only ended when she fell ill and escaped to get medical help.
Mrs Quainoo was a former teacher at Cherry Lane Primary School, West Drayton, in west London (pictured)
Primary school teacher who hurled marker pen lids at pupils and pulled chair from under child
Andy Jummum was banned from the classroom for life in 2018 for ‘hurling pen lids’ at pupils.
Mr Jummum threw the tops of whiteboard markers ‘at speed’ at the children who were in Year 5 and aged between nine and ten-years old at the time of the offences at St Michael’s Church of England Primary School in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire.
He also pulled a chair from beneath a pupil, who was swinging on its front legs, causing him to fall to the floor.
Mr Jummum was hauled before a disciplinary hearing for his actions where it was heard he showed ‘no remorse’ for his behaviour.
The teacher was handed a lifetime ban after being found to be responsible for ‘repeated violent behaviour towards pupils’.
