Drug smuggling social worker struck off register

A social work manager has been struck off after covering up a conviction for smuggling £25,000 worth of cannabis into the UK.

Gleneise Williams-Chang failed to tell Wolverhampton Council, where she worked in a service for people with learning disabilities, that Manchester Crown Court had jailed her for 13 months for importing nearly 6kg of the drug.

Willams-Chang had worked at the council for 30 years before her conviction in July 2010.

She took early retirement just before starting her sentence in an attempt to keep her conviction secret from her employers and colleagues, the hearing found.

She even requested a character reference from the council, which the General Social Care Council said was “deliberate manipulation to ensure she left her employment without anyone knowing that she had been convicted”.

The GSCC’s conduct committee found Willams-Chang had acted dishonestly in concealing her arrest and conviction.

In a statement to the hearing, Williams-Chang said she had acted that way because she did not trust her managers.

Read the full notice of decision

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