Shamed headteacher who siphoned £30,000 from her school to pay a rogue builder after pretending the cash was for a playground rain shelter is struck off

Sian Harkin, 54 (pictured), has been struck off after siphoning cash from the bank account of her village primary school

A headteacher has been banned from the classroom for life after taking £30,000 from school funds to pay a rogue builder who was doing work on her home.

Sian Harkin, 54, has been struck off after siphoning cash from the bank account of her village primary school.

The mother-of-two signed cheques to builder Lee Slocombe, pretending the money was to pay for a rain shelter at her school.

But Slocombe was a notorious cowboy who pocketed the cash while completing a luxury £80,000 makeover at the home Harkin shared with her bank manager husband Anthony in Pontypridd, South Wales.

A disciplinary hearing was told the highly experienced head was in charge of the school's staff account.

Committee officer Rachel Price said: 'Mrs Harkin was responsible for looking after the account.

'All cheques required two out of three signatures from Ms Harkin the deputy head and another teacher before they could be authorised.'

When an internal audit uncovered her fraud - including forging the deputy head's signature - she was arrested.

An Education Workforce Council hearing yesterday ruled she had brought her 'profession into disrepute' and that she should be banned from UK classrooms indefinitely.

Chair Jacquie Turnbull said: 'We have taken into account the serious nature of this case which featured dishonesty arising from a breach of trust from a headteacher.

'Incidents such as this bring the teaching profession into disrepute.' 

The mother-of-two signed cheques to builder Lee Slocombe. But Slocombe was a notorious cowboy builder who pocketed the cash while completing a luxury £80,000 makeover at the home (pictured) Harkin shared with her bank manager husband Anthony in Pontypridd, South Wales

Mrs Harkin claimed that the money was being used to pay for a rain shelter for parents waiting outside her school - but instead it all went to her cowboy builder

An earlier court hearing was told that Mrs Harkin gave the school's cash to 33-year-old Slocombe, who carried out 18 months work on her home.

The former policeman was jailed earlier this year for fraud against three other families.

Harkin plundered school funds after falling for Slocombe's 'sob stories', Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard.

She used six cheques from Llwyncelyn Primary School in Porth, South Wales - and carried on even when she moved to another school.

When questioned, Harkin claimed the money was to be used to build a rain shelter gazebo for waiting parents. That work was never ratified by governors.

Slocombe cashed the school cheques at a Cash Converter store and a pawnbrokers rather than put it into his own account.

Slocombe (pictured) cashed the school cheques at a Cash Converter store and a pawnbrokers rather than put it into his own account

To pay him, Harkin even forged her deputy head's signature when cashing cheques.

An audit investigation uncovered her fraud. She then paid back £3,200 after telling police she should not have 'dabbled' in school funds.

Marion Lewis, defending, said: 'The effects of her wrongdoing have been devastating. A successful carer that she dearly loved has been destroyed. She is thoroughly ashamed.

'She wrongly trusted Lee Slocombe because of the sob stories she was being given and knows the effect her actions have had on the school and deeply regrets them.

'She came under Lee Slocombe's spell. He charmed her. Her eyes were not opened until she was confronted with the fact that he had pleaded guilty to offences of fraud.

'She has found it very difficult to come to terms with her own gullibility and feels completely humiliated.'

Harkin was jailed for 12 months after she admitted fraud, theft and forgery in April.

She did not attend yeserday's disciplinary hearing in Cardiff.

After the case, Anthony Harkin said: 'My world has been turned upside down over this.

'What Sian did was wrong and she pleaded guilty to fraud and theft from the school.

'But I want to stress that every penny of the money spent on our house came from my pocket and not from the school's funds.

'I am a bank manager and have proved to police that each pound and penny was met by us.

Mrs Harkin used six cheques from Llwyncelyn Primary School (pictured) in Porth, South Wales - and carried on even when she moved to another school

'What Slocombe did with the money from the school is a mystery. He is very plausible and a convicted fraudster.

'We feel very let down by Slocombe over the two and a bit years he worked with us.

'He has conned many, many people out of thousands of pounds. We trusted him as did many other people and were bitterly let down.'