Social worker suspended for providing false references

A social worker has been suspended from practice for a year for providing false references to help her sister and nephew gain employment.

Alice Sai Turray wrote the references on Hackney Council-lettered paper, and was convicted of four counts of false representation at Thames Magistrates’ Court last May, for which she received an eight-week prison sentence, suspended for two years. She was also dismissed from her job.

A Health and Care Professions Council conduct and competence committee found her offences, to which she pleaded guilty, had brought social work into disrepute and would lower her standing among service users.

However, it stopped short of striking her off because Turray had shown sufficient remorse and insight into her conduct that she was unlikely to repeat it. It also found no issues had been raised about her competence as a social worker.

The committee advised that, when her suspension comes up for review, the reviewing panel checks whether Turray had maintained her professional competence and developed further insight into her misconduct.