Rifaz Saleem
Introduction
Rifaz Saleem is a former Glasgow support worker who was struck off the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) register in September 2026 after a fitness to practise investigation into money taken from an elderly man in his care. While employed as a support worker for Careline Home Support, Saleem withdrew £250 in cash from the man’s bank account without his knowledge or consent, then told him that his card must have been lost. The lie left the man believing that someone else had taken his money.
What followed the incident mattered as much as the incident itself. Given a suspension order and a training condition by the regulator, Saleem stopped engaging with the process altogether, and the SSSC’s panel ultimately concluded that removal from the register was the only acceptable outcome.
Background Information
Saleem worked for Careline Home Support in Glasgow, a social care provider supporting people in the community. Support workers occupy positions of considerable trust: they assist vulnerable adults with daily living, and service users and their families must be able to rely on their honesty with money and personal affairs.
Care workers in Scotland’s registered services are regulated by the SSSC, which maintains a public register, sets standards of conduct, and investigates concerns about registrants. Its sanctions ladder runs from warnings through conditions and suspension to removal from the register, the care sector’s equivalent of being struck off.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Regulatory misconduct finding, not a criminal conviction. The SSSC panel found the acts of misconduct proved; the published record does not describe any criminal proceedings in this matter.
On 31 October 2023, Saleem withdrew £250 in cash from the elderly man’s bank account without the man’s knowledge or consent. He then lied to the man directly, claiming that his card must have been lost. Because of that lie, the man believed that someone else had withdrawn his money.
The panel later described the proved acts of misconduct as giving rise to “serious concerns over your underlying attitudes and values”, adding that it “could not be reassured that there could be no repetition of this type of dishonest conduct in the future”.
Public Reaction and Consequences
After an initial hearing, the SSSC handed Saleem a suspension order and a condition requiring him to complete a suitable course of Adult Support and Protection (ASP) training within six months, with a reflective note required from him upon completion. A regulation professional adviser was appointed to monitor and support his compliance with the condition. Saleem did not reply to the adviser’s emails.
His engagement never developed beyond the very early stages. By the time of the case management meeting on 17 October 2025, he had ceased all contact with the SSSC. The regulator noted that he displayed “a lack of interest or commitment to maintaining the standard required” and a “persistent lack of insight into the seriousness of actions or consequences”.
In its written reasons, the panel told Saleem: “Your enduring failure to engage with SSSC, and the fitness to practise process, points to a lack of interest or commitment to maintaining the standard required by your professional regulator.” It noted that, since the decision of the impairment hearing panel, he had “failed to demonstrate any insight or shown any intention or desire for remediation”, and that the requirements set for his return to practice “have not been met and there is no indication that these can or will be met”.
The panel concluded that “nothing less than a removal order would meet the public interest requirements” and struck Saleem’s name from the register. The outcome was reported on 24 September 2026.
Current Status
Saleem has been removed from the SSSC register and can no longer work in registered social care roles in Scotland that require SSSC registration. The public record does not state whether the £250 was repaid to the man, whether any criminal proceedings were ever brought in connection with the withdrawal, or what employment, if any, Saleem has taken since.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The removal order ends Saleem’s career in registered social care. Removal is the most serious sanction available to an SSSC panel, reserved — in the panel’s own words — for cases where nothing less will meet the public interest.
Just as damaging is the shape of the findings that will remain attached to his name: dishonesty towards a service user, followed by a refusal to engage with the regulator that investigated him. The panel’s conclusion that it could not be reassured there would be no repetition of the dishonest conduct is the kind of finding that would follow him into any future role involving vulnerable people.
The case also shows how the process compounds. The original act might have been addressed through the training condition and reflection the panel required, but Saleem’s silence left the regulator with no evidence of remediation and no basis for anything short of removal. A £250 withdrawal, met with evasion rather than accountability, cost him his registration entirely.