Social worker struck off for using fake passport

A social worker who was convicted of possessing a fake passport has been struck off the register in England.

Joanna Aggrey used the falsified Ghanaian passport to persuade Croydon Council in 2006 that she was legally allowed to work in this country.

But concerns about the legality of her documentation were raised months later during a routine internal audit, the General Social Care Council’s conduct committee heard.

Aggrey was subsequently convicted of possessing a false passport with intent at Croydon Crown Court on 20 May 2010 and sentenced to nine months in prison suspended for two years, with a requirement to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work.

The sentencing judge noted that there were unusual features in this case that allowed him to depart from the usual practice of passing an immediate custodial sentence.

Namely, Aggrey’s appeal against a refusal to extend her student visa would probably have been successful, but her application had been lost in the system.

But the conduct committee concluded “that failure to remove the registrant from the register in circumstances whereby she had falsified her documentation in order to get a job, and maintained that deceit for a period of almost a year, would seriously undermine public confidence in the social work profession”.

Read the full notice of decision

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