A Newham teacher has been banned for life from the profession after he manipulated school finances and fabricated credentials to advance his career.
Former assistant headteacher and Vice Principle at Brampton Manor Academy in East Ham, Elkas Mohammed, submitted multiple fabricated invoices for school events, a Teaching Regulation Authority (TRA) panel concluded.
He submitted invoices for a Year 11 prom DJ that were later proven to be completely fabricated. When questioned about these invoices, he provided inconsistent explanations, such as claiming a DJ had paid him in cash—a scenario the panel found highly unlikely.
Witnesses confirmed that the suppliers listed on his invoices had no record of the transactions, and the bank details often belonged to personal accounts rather than business entities.
He also listed a false university and degree qualification on his CV and used fake references while applying for jobs, the report published last month reads.
When considering whether to ban him from the profession, a witness claimed that at the time Mr Mohammed was the teacher managing modern foreign languages department and the school had received their worst ever results in this department and that he was removed from this position, as the staff had lost confidence in him.
The report concludes: “The panel concluded that there could be no doubt that Mr Mohammed knew that his actions were wrong and were not in accordance with what is expected of a teacher.
“The panel also considered the complexity of how Mr Mohammed had been dishonest, in that to provide the false invoices, he would have had to manufacture them and provide differing bank details, and he also appeared to have created fake email addresses to give the false references. The panel considered the likely financial advantage Mr Mohammed would have obtained by providing false information on his references, as these assisted him in securing jobs.”
On the day of the prom, the DJ had dropped out so Mr Mohammed found another DJ known as ‘Person D’ and presented a £250 invoice in their name – though it was later revealed the invoice did not actually come from Person D.
A witness said he had requested for Mr Mohammed to arrange a £650 refund from the DJ who cancelled but according to the misconduct report, a Lloyds transaction showed the sum of £650 credit with the reference, ‘Elkas Mohammed ‘Refund DJ”.
Mr Mohammed claimed DJ had paid him in cash which he then transferred to the school, however the panel said this was unlikely.
Another invoice, paid for by the school, was for yearbooks, key rings and memorabilia with ‘Brampton Manor’ on them, which were to be handed out at the Year 11 prom. However these never transpired. The invoice for these has the bank details for an individual account name instead of for the company providing the items.
Witness C contacted all of the suppliers on the invoices who confirmed the invoices were fake.
The misconduct panel also heard how when he resigned from his role as Vice Principal at Brampton Manor in July 2019, Mr Mohammed worked temporarily at Cumberland School from September 2019 until spring 2020.
While applying for the job at Cumberland in July 2019, an individual was listed on a reference from ‘St Hilda’s East Community Centre and Boundary School’ as his senior line manager.
It transpired that this person was not a senior line manager, and he had inflated his own job title.
The panel concluded Mr Mohammed could have instructed or influenced someone to submit false references to Cumberland on his behalf – despite knowing the information was untrue.
When working at Oak Wood School in Hillingdon, he submitted false references for aa job at Oasis Academy.
A witness at Oasis said he hadn’t received a reference from Oak Wood but instead from St Hilda’s. It transpired that St Hilda’s was not in fact a school, but a community centre.
The panel concluded that Mr Mohammed either wrote and sent the reference himself or had influenced it.
On another case, Mr Mohammed created a fake email address to write his own reference, posing as someone from Brampton Manor school.
The panel also heard how Mr Mohammed’s CV stated he had attended Lancaster University, St Martins College from 1999 to 2002 where he was awarded a 2:1 in Education/Science/English BA (Hons).
However on 19 August, 2021, Lancaster University stated they could not find anyone on the system with these details – which the panel found was true.
The panel said Mr Mohammed had ‘deliberately and knowingly’ provided false references to Cumberland, Oak Wood and Oasis and said ‘there could be no doubt’ that he knew that his actions were wrong and were not in line with what is expected of a teacher.
The panel noted Mr Mohammed would have put together his own CV and that he had not made a simple mistake but had instead added a university degree from a university he had not attended.
The panel went on to say, “Mr Mohammed’s dishonesty in his deliberate decision to provide a false narrative in relation to his references, would significantly impair public confidence in the profession.”
They also considered the ‘complexity’ of how he had been dishonest, including the false invoices where he provided different bank details and used fake email addresses to give false references.
The panel was satisfied that Mr Mohammed was guilty of unacceptable conduct. Mr Mohammed was also not entitled to apply for restoration of his eligibility to teach.
