Blaine Wakeman
Introduction
Blaine Wakeman is a former PE teacher who was banned from teaching in May 2023 after a Teaching Regulation Agency panel found he concealed criminal fraud convictions from the school that employed him, lied about why he missed the day he was convicted, and then misappropriated a parent’s ski-trip cash at his next school while claiming he had returned it. In October 2017 Wakeman was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of fraudulently evading VAT — £115,000 fraudulently claimed — and of making or supplying articles for use in fraud, receiving suspended custodial sentences. He never told Grace Academy Solihull, where he taught, claimed he was absent that day because his son was in hospital while he was actually in court pleading guilty, and only left the school when suspended months later. Hired by Wodensborough Ormiston Academy in January 2019 under a risk assessment barring him from handling cash, he took £160 from a parent for a school ski trip, never deposited it, and provided a tracking number for a parcel containing cash that turned out to point to a different address. He did not attend his hearing and received an indefinite ban with a five-year review period.
Background Information
Wakeman joined Grace Academy Solihull as a PE teacher on 1 September 2016. What the school did not know was that he had been arrested on or about 31 August 2016, was under investigation for tax offences, and was facing criminal proceedings requiring his attendance at court — including on 9 October 2017, when he was convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of being knowingly concerned in fraudulent evasion of VAT (contrary to section 72 of the Value Added Tax Act 1994) and of making or supplying articles for use in fraud (contrary to section 7 of the Fraud Act 2006). The fraud involved £115,000 and drew significant suspended custodial sentences. Grace Academy suspended him on 23 April 2018, and he resigned on 11 June 2018 with effect from 30 June 2018. In January 2019 Wodensborough Ormiston Academy hired him as a PE teacher — with a criminal records risk assessment dated 26 October 2018 expressly barring him from handling cash or being a budget holder. By November 2019 the ski-trip cash issue had surfaced; he resigned from School 2 on 4 November 2019. He did not engage with, attend, or respond to the TRA proceedings.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. The 2017 convictions are final criminal adjudications; the panel accepted the certificates of conviction as conclusive proof. The concealment and cash findings were proved in his absence on documentary and witness evidence. No admissions were made.
The panel found that between 1 September 2016 and 9 October 2017 Wakeman failed to tell Grace Academy of his arrest, the tax investigation, or the court proceedings — despite the school’s Code of Conduct and his contract requiring immediate disclosure. On the day of his conviction he told the school he was absent because “his son was in hospital” while pleading guilty in court at 10:25am; the absence log recorded “compassionate leave”, and the Crown Court plea documentation showed where he actually was. He never disclosed the convictions afterwards either, later saying he felt they were not relevant to teaching and that his employment had ceased — an explanation the panel rejected, noting the contract required disclosure of convictions. Applying Ivey v Genting Casinos, the panel found all of this dishonest: the matters were exactly what his employer required him to disclose, and he knew it. The panel noted the convictions “were not trivial (£115,000 fraudulently claimed and making or supplying articles for use in fraud) and the custodial sentences were significant (albeit suspended)”.
The second school supplied the repeat. On or around 16 September 2019 Wakeman accepted £160 in cash from Parent B for a school ski trip, telling her he would put it in his teaching box because the finance office was unattended — despite the risk assessment barring him from cash handling, which staff had reiterated before the trip. He never deposited or accounted for the money; his own 4 November 2019 email to a finance witness accepted the cash had not been deposited. Between 2 and 4 December 2019 he claimed he had returned the £160 to the school, producing a tracking number for a letter supposedly containing it — but the tracking number was for a different address, which he acknowledged in writing, and the cash was never received. The panel found the claim false and, under Ivey, found both the failure to account for the cash and the false return claim dishonest: there were “numerous opportunities” to hand it in, and the promised re-sending never happened. Every allegation — conviction, concealment at School 1, dishonesty findings, cash misappropriation at School 2, breach of the risk assessment — was found proved.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The case received no national press coverage; the consequences are disciplinary and regulatory. At Grace Academy, the discovery of the 2017 convictions led to suspension in April 2018 and his June 2018 resignation; at Wodensborough Ormiston Academy, the ski-trip cash dispute and his false return claim preceded his November 2019 resignation. The panel found repeated dishonesty over a period of time and a position of trust abused, noted he failed to engage with the process, and saw “no mitigation from Mr Wakeman in respect of allegations 2 and 3” and “no evidence of mitigation factors relevant to this stage of the process”. It recommended prohibition with a five-year review period, citing the Advice’s guidance that offences of fraud and serious dishonesty weigh in favour of a longer period before review, and finding “lack of evidence of remorse and insight by Mr Wakeman” such that “he should be afforded time to reflect in a meaningful way”. The decision maker agreed, noting the five-year window was needed given the seriousness, the repeated dishonesty, and the absence of insight or remorse.
Current Status
The panel sat on 15 May 2023 by Microsoft Teams, proceeding in Wakeman’s absence under the R v Jones principles after service by Special Delivery and email was proved and his right to attend held waived; its determination is dated 16 May 2023. On 23 May 2023 Sarah Buxcey, the decision maker appointed by the Secretary of State, prohibited Wakeman from teaching indefinitely: he cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the order to be set aside, but not before 30 May 2028 — five years from the date of the order — and only if a fresh panel then agrees; the decision states this “is not an automatic right to have the prohibition order removed”. He retains a right of appeal to the King’s Bench Division of the High Court within 28 days; no published record shows an appeal. The suspended sentences from October 2017 long since expired; the teaching ban remains until at least mid-2028 and potentially for life.
Impact on Their Career/Life
Wakeman’s is the regulator’s canonical repeated-dishonesty case: the same concealment pattern run at two schools within three years, with a criminal fraud conviction at the centre. The first school never knew a suspended fraud offender was on its PE staff through an entire school year because he lied about a hospital stay on conviction day; the second school knew — the 2018 risk assessment proves the disclosure did happen somewhere — and barred him from cash, which he then took anyway, and covered with a fake parcel-tracking receipt. Each layer made the next finding easier: the panel had conviction certificates, absence logs, court plea records, his own emails, and two credible finance witnesses. A teacher who was 26 at conviction is barred until at least May 2028, with the decision maker tying any release to meaningful reflection the panel found entirely absent — the five-year review window being the regulator’s mechanism for making that reflection mandatory rather than optional.
Sources
- Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Blaine Wakeman” — source