Roberto De La Llera Martos
Introduction
Roberto De La Llera Martos is a former teacher banned from the English teaching register for life in March 2026 after a Teaching Regulation Agency panel found that he told a student he wanted someone to “play” with him, offered to pay money for it, and asked whether the student knew anyone else who would be interested. The panel found the exchange sexually motivated, and the Secretary of State imposed a prohibition order with no review period and no right of restoration.
The case reached the public record quietly, as most TRA outcomes do, through the regulator’s published decision — but its content is among the more serious in the 2026 run of bans: a teacher soliciting a student, with money, for sexual purposes.
Background Information
The TRA decision records that Martos was working as a teacher at the time of the conduct. The student is anonymised in the published decision as Student A, and the exchange the panel examined occurred on 17 March 2022, with the referral and hearing following years later — the gap between conduct and determination that runs through the regulator’s post-pandemic backlog. Nothing in the public record indicates a criminal prosecution followed; the TRA case proceeded on the civil standard of proof, the balance of probabilities, which is a lower bar than a criminal court would have required and the reason regulatory and criminal outcomes in the same facts often diverge.
Martos denied the allegations, and the matter proceeded to a contested hearing rather than the agreed-facts route most TRA cases take. The panel heard the evidence and made findings anyway.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Allegations. The claims in this section are findings of a Teaching Regulation Agency professional conduct panel, which reported substantiating them at a contested hearing. They are regulatory findings on the balance of probabilities, not criminal convictions, and Martos denied the allegations throughout.
The panel found proved that on 17 March 2022 Martos engaged in an inappropriate conversation with Student A in three respects: he told the student he wanted someone to “play” with him and/or to “fulfil [his] needs”; he said he would be willing to pay money in exchange for that; and he asked whether the student knew anyone else who would be interested in participating. The panel further found, as a separate allegation, that this conduct was sexually motivated and/or of a sexual nature.
In reaching its findings the panel weighed the student’s account against Martos’s denial and found the proven facts amounted to unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. The offer of payment was treated as an aggravating feature: it converted a boundary breach into solicitation, and the request to recruit others — asking whether the student knew anyone else who would be interested — extended the conduct from a single indiscretion toward a pattern of seeking.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The sanction was the most severe the TRA can recommend: the published order states that Martos “is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England”, and the Secretary of State decided that allowing no review period was necessary because of the seriousness of the conduct. Unlike most prohibition orders, this one carries no date after which he may even apply to have it reconsidered, and he is not entitled to apply for restoration.
The outcome was published on GOV.UK on 27 March 2026. No mainstream press coverage followed; the regulator’s publication is the case’s entire public footprint.
Current Status
Martos is permanently barred from teaching in England. The prohibition order has no review period; his name is erased from the teacher register and cannot be restored through the normal application route.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A lifetime ban with a dishonesty-adjacent finding — soliciting a student for payment — ends any prospect of work in education or child-facing roles, in England or in jurisdictions that honour TRA prohibitions. The case is also a data point in the TRA’s 2026 posture: contested denials do not shield teachers where the panel finds the student’s account credible.
Sources
- Teaching Regulation Agency, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Roberto De La Llera Martos,” published 27 March 2026 — source