Deborah Biggar

Introduction

Deborah Biggar is a social care worker from Kilmarnock in Scotland who was struck off the register of the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) after being convicted of embezzling around £5,000 from a vulnerable patient in her care. Biggar was convicted at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in January 2025 of embezzling from an 88-year-old individual living with dementia, and STV News reported the outcome under the blunt headline “Carer struck off after embezzling £5,000 from vulnerable patient”. The offence took place on various occasions between 1 September 2020 and 30 August 2021, and at the time of the offence Biggar was registered as a social care worker with the SSSC. In a Notice of Decision published on January 22, 2026, the regulator concluded that the conviction impaired her fitness to practise and removed her from the register.

Background Information

Biggar worked in social care in Kilmarnock and, at the time of the offence, was registered as a social care worker with the SSSC — the body that regulates the social service workforce in Scotland, maintains the register of workers deemed fit to practise, and holds the power to remove from that register anyone whose conduct or convictions fall below its standards. Registration is what permits a person to work in registered social care roles, and it places the worker in a position of trust in relation to the vulnerable people they support.

The person Biggar embezzled from was an 88-year-old individual living with dementia — a service user whose vulnerability shaped how both the court and the regulator treated the case. The offence was not a single incident: it took place on various occasions between 1 September 2020 and 30 August 2021, spanning close to a full year. The amount involved was around £5,000. The gap between the conduct and its regulatory consequences was considerable: the offence period ended in August 2021, the conviction came at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in January 2025, and the SSSC’s Notice of Decision followed on January 22, 2026.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Adjudicated. Biggar’s conviction for embezzling around £5,000 from an 88-year-old service user living with dementia is a matter of court record, having been handed down at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court in January 2025; the account below rests on that conviction and on the SSSC’s regulatory response to it.

In its Notice of Decision, the SSSC said the conviction impaired Biggar’s fitness to practise and amounted to a serious breach of trust. The council found that the offence involved dishonesty while she was acting in a privileged position, and that it caused, or was likely to have caused, “significant financial harm” to a vulnerable service user. The regulator also noted that the behaviour occurred over an extended period and demonstrated a clear pattern of misconduct rather than an isolated lapse.

The SSSC was equally critical of Biggar’s conduct once the matter came before it. It said she did not engage with the investigation and provided no evidence of insight, reflection or remorse for her actions. The regulator concluded there was a risk of similar behaviour being repeated, and highlighted concerns about potential financial and emotional harm to service users. The report read: “There is a need to protect service users from potential financial harm. There is a real risk of financial harm being caused if your behaviour were to be repeated.”

Public Reaction and Consequences

The SSSC’s findings were framed squarely around the protection of the people in its registrants’ care. The report continued: “There is also a real risk of emotional harm and/or distress being caused to service users if you were to repeat the behaviour.” It went on: “The behaviour falls far below the accepted professional standards for a social services worker. There are significant public protection concerns arising from the behaviour.”

The regulator’s conclusion left no route back to registration: “We consider the public interest to be high and that the reputation of the profession could be damaged as a result of the behaviour, which is fundamentally incompatible with professional registration.” On that basis, the SSSC imposed its most serious sanction and struck Biggar off the register, ending her status as a registered social care worker. STV News reported the removal after the Notice of Decision was published, drawing on the SSSC’s own account of its reasoning.

Current Status

Biggar is struck off the SSSC register, following the Notice of Decision published on January 22, 2026. The coverage did not detail the sentence imposed at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court, and no appeal against the SSSC’s decision was reported. The conviction remains a matter of court record independently of the regulator’s decision, so the dishonesty at the centre of the case is documented twice over: once in the criminal courts and once in the SSSC’s published findings. Her removal means she cannot work in any role that requires SSSC registration.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The removal ended Biggar’s registered social care career in Scotland. A conviction for embezzling from an elderly, dementia-affected service user, combined with the SSSC’s findings that she acted dishonestly from a privileged position, did so over an extended period as part of a clear pattern, engaged with neither the court process’s regulatory aftermath nor the SSSC’s investigation, and showed no insight, reflection or remorse, placed the case squarely in the category the regulator describes as fundamentally incompatible with professional registration. The dual consequences — a criminal conviction on the court record and removal from the professional register — mean she is excluded from registered social care work by both the courts and her regulator. The case illustrates the position the SSSC took in its own words: where a registered worker is convicted of stealing from a vulnerable service user, the need to protect service users from potential financial harm, and the public interest in the reputation of the profession, outweigh any prospect of the worker remaining on the register.