Iain R St Leger
Introduction
Iain R St Leger is an occupational therapist registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) who was suspended from the register for twelve months in April 2025, after a conduct panel found he had falsified service-user records, failed vulnerable service users, continued working for around eight months in breach of an interim suspension order, and then lied to a regulatory panel about it. He admitted the substance of the allegations. His suspension was extended for a further six months at a review in May 2026. He is not the same person as Robert Morris, Stephen Morris or Julie Morris, whose cases appear on this site and are unrelated. The decisions appear on MedicWatch and the official HCPTS hearings site, and he is listed among suspended practitioners on MedicWatch’s suspensions list.
Background Information
St Leger had sixteen years of unblemished occupational therapy practice before these matters. In October 2022 he joined Hertfordshire County Council after a successful interview with a deputy team manager, and was allocated to a team serving East Hertfordshire and Broxbourne; further cases from a neighbouring team were allocated to him in February 2023 as part of a waiting-list review. The failures found proved span October 2022 to June 2023: he did not communicate with service users or provide timely updates, did not carry out home visits he documented as done, falsified reports and case entries, and left identified risks unactioned, required equipment unordered and necessary referrals unmade.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Admitted falsification, practising while suspended, and misleading a panel. St Leger admitted the allegations; the panel found repeated, serious misconduct and dishonesty rather than mere lack of competence.
An interim suspension order was imposed on his practice for eighteen months from 1 September 2023 while the investigation proceeded. St Leger nonetheless continued to work as an occupational therapist from September 2023 to May 2024, including a period in Jersey from June 2023 to May 2024, without telling the employer or the agency placing him about the order or the proceedings against him. On 8 May 2024, after the council discovered the suspension, he emailed the HCPC: “I have continued to work as an Occupational Therapist despite being suspended. My current role was not made aware of this. I have worked with them since September 2023. I have now stopped working for them after they found out.”
He also falsely told an HCPC Investigating Committee panel that he was not practising, at a time when he was working in breach of the order. At the substantive hearing, held from 7 to 16 April 2025, the panel accepted his admissions and found the failings proved: the falsified case notes and assessments were active deceptions that concealed missed home visits and unactioned risks, and exposed multiple vulnerable service users to a real risk of significant harm. The panel found the dishonesty repeated across his council work, his disregard of the interim order, his non-disclosure to the employer and agency, and his lie to the investigating panel. It concluded his insight was at an early stage, that the risk of repetition remained, and that conditions of practice would be unworkable.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The panel concluded that only suspension could protect the public and maintain confidence in the profession: a practitioner who falsifies records to hide unvisited vulnerable service users, then works through an interim suspension and lies about it to the regulator, has gone beyond what a conditions order could manage. In mitigation it credited his full and unequivocal admissions before and at the hearing, sixteen years of practice with no other concerns, some early insight, and limited evidence about his health at the relevant time. Against him it weighed the abuse of trust in his council role, the repetition of the dishonesty across four separate contexts, and the concealment rather than escalation of missed visits. The case is recorded publicly on the HCPTS site and on MedicWatch.
Current Status
On 16 April 2025 the panel directed a twelve-month suspension order. At the first review, on 1 May 2026, a panel conducted the hearing wholly in private because health information was intrinsic to the submissions, found the order needed to continue, and extended the suspension for a further six months from 8 May 2026, with a further review required before 8 November 2026. The public decision records the extension and the underlying findings but not the private review submissions. St Leger remains suspended from HCPC-registered practice, and the November 2026 review will decide whether he can demonstrate the insight and remediation the original panel found only beginning.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The falsification findings ended St Leger’s council post and the Jersey employment, and the suspension has now run continuously since April 2025. The panel’s characterisation matters for his future: because the dishonesty was found to be repeated and calculated rather than situational, any return to practice requires him to reconstruct trust with evidence, not assurances. The review panel’s decision to extend rather than restore, taken even on private health submissions, indicates the original concerns had not been resolved eighteen months on. The determinations remain permanently searchable on public registers and independent records such as MedicWatch.